Guardians and Goddesses
by Sosei
Summary: A story of a new soldier who appears right after the Sailor Moon R season along with a new bunch of baddies. Will the pretty soldiers be able to handle the new evil guests? More importantly, will Rei be able to handle her own house guest?
1. Part 1

The tall, lanky girl sat behind one of the wooden crates, her head lowered in despair. Raising it slightly for a moment, she glimpsed at the small porthole, high up against the metal wall. The huge, gloomy room of the ship seemed to stretch on forever, without a single other human being to face the darkness with her. Stacks and piles of anything the imagination could think of filled the storage room, adding a sense of entrapment in the maze they created.  
Instead of pondering more about the mysteries of the room, the girl just laid her forehead on her knees. Nothing could be more important than what was on her mind.  
She closed her eyes and snorted in anger, as another tear fell down her face. Only lifting her head to brush it away briskly, she blamed the fuzzy bangs that fell from each side of her head to her chin for the moment of weakness and vowed never to let it happen again.  
Her light brown hair now behind her ears and out of mind, she replaced her forehead on its rightful spot as her grey-blue eyes stared blankly at the floor. Her patience could last only so long until it ran out completely. She wondered what would happen after that.  
Finally, the heavy groan of metal against metal rang through the enormous room. The girl peaked through one of the many spaces between the stacks of crates near her, letting the light that shined from the newly opened door glare into her eyes.  
Two men walked into the room, not far from where she sat.  
"Boy, lift with yer dang legs!" whined the older, shorter one. He was a bit on the large side, and a bitter mood was plastered permanently on his face.  
"Yer gonna break yer back by the time yer my age. If ya ever get that far. Her har ha!" the older man laughed coldly. The boy kept his mouth shut, maybe in wisdom, and slammed the door behind him in silent rebellion. He had slammed it so hard, that the door had creaked back open by a few inches. It opened just enough to let light flood into a sliver of the room. 

The girl, who's name was Renée Brightman, picked up the black duffle bag that had been sitting by her side, and slowly got off her knees with complete silence. Certain the coast was clear, she dashed for the door and onto the deck.  
Breaking into the sunlight after such a long time in the dark, she had to protect her eyes from the light, slowing her down just long enough to make her worried. Trying to brush off the feeling that she was being watched, she ran her eyes over her surroundings, not breaking her gaze until her eyes rested upon a makeshift bridge from the boat to land.   
However, her first instinct had been right – slowing down her dash to freedom had been a bad idea. She heard someone give a cry in surprise and call after her as she sprung down the bridge and off the boat.  
Dashing in panic through the street, the people and other such obstacles, she allowed her curiosity to take the better of her, and she turned her head to check on her assailant. The one sailor that had spotted her seemed to have given up, and was back on the huge cargo boat. She continued running, however, until the small figure ducked into one of the many doors on board.   
Suddenly, a flash of pain Renée stopped in her tracks, her hands thrown around her head as she slowly recovered clear sight. She turned to see her assaulter: a telephone pole on the side of the road. Muttering curses under her breath, she sat underneath it, rubbing her throbbing head tenderly.   
The pain in her head brought the twain of hunger in her stomach back; she had been trying to ignore it, and had been successful, until now. It had been ages to her since she had last eaten, and when she had eaten, it hadn't been a very good meal. She thought back to a few of the crates she had opened in the search of food. You could only live off of hard macaroni noodles and orange juice for so long.   
Renée just sat there, shivering slightly, as the sea breeze started to pick up. The cool temperature of the water came with it, setting her off in a quest to find her balled-up jacket in the small bag she held. Finally she found what she was looking for, and as she attempted to smooth out the many wrinkles, she started looking around more closely.   
"Where the hell… am I?" she squinted in confusion as she scanned her current location. She looked from face to face, building to building, sign to sign. She couldn't read anything, recognize any logos, and the people looked of Asian decent. Nothing was familiar to her.   
_Where am I?!_ She thought as fear got a grip on her insides. She began to battle with her jacket, struggling to get in on in her sudden state of frustration and panic.   
_Oh my God,_ she thought, I must have got stuck in China! Oh my God, China! I'm so screwed!   
Her hands shook as she brought them to her forehead softly, just before violently slapping her forehead several times. _What the hell was I thinking?!_ She momentarily paused her beating to think, before slapping her forehead one more time. Her stupidity had surpassed anything she had ever done this time, and she had thought she had done some impressively stupid things before.   
As her stomach beginning to pain her again, she decided to start drifting. Maybe she could find a nice town, where someone could give her food… someone had to be able to help her. With that, she got up and started walking away from the ocean. 

After nearly an hour of walking, an hour of complete anxiety as she tried to keep a low profile, she had found nothing. She had entered a more residential place a while back, and as she passed a few shops, she also passed a small circle of friends gabbing.   
Renée couldn't help but stare.   
_Wow,_ she thought, _why couldn't I ever find friends like that? Just no worries… how is that possible?_   
"You think that guy was hot? No, my friend. How 'bout the guy at the video store? Ca-yute!"   
Renée glanced back in surprise. Japanese… Renée thought.   
"They were speaking JAPANESE!" she nearly cried out in triumph; but she contained her happiness with a smile as her hopes lifted for the first time in a long while.   
"I'm in Japan, I'm in Japan," she muttered in the familiar teasing tune of a playground. This made the situation much lighter for her. She understood Japanese spoken very well, and could nearly speak it decently. _Well, at least I'm better off now,_ she thought, _Lien's ramblings will actually come in handy!_   
Silently thanking her friend with clasped hands, she took a deep breath and began to look closer at the buildings. It'd be a lot easier to find somewhere to stay. 

Just as the sun started to set, Renée came across a little temple on a hill. The orange light shone off the front of the building, the walls seemingly glowing in the sun. It was the only building of its kind Renée had come across, and it was literally set apart from the rest. It looked so inviting, Renée was sure someone in there could help her.   
"If it's a temple, they can't turn me away," Renée tried talking herself into being brave, "and if it's rich people, they can't either!"   
Jogging up the steps, her pace was slowed down swiftly as Renée looked up at the magnificent trees surrounding the stairway. Pretty pink splashes of all shades seemed to just fill the sky. Now climbing the steps like a tortoise, all bravery replaced with awe, Renée admired the canopy until a harsh voice snapped her back to reality.   
"What are you doing? The temple's closed."   
Renée turned slowly to face the girl the voice came from, all bravery completely erased from her mind.   
"Umm… well… eheh…. I'm just going to leave now," Renée stepped back in fear, trying to make an escape. Instead of avoiding a collision, this action just made the girl angrier. "You don't even know this place is a sacred temple, do you?!" she barked. "You westerners sometimes! You think you can just come up onto this property for the sake of curiosity? That's so rude!"   
Renée's face started going red as she tried to salvage a piece of her dignity.   
"No, oh no that's not what I meant-"  
"Then why are you here?" the girl snapped in retaliation. She didn't quite like the sense of Renée.   
Renée now looked at the ground, not wanting to face the girl's burning purple eyes. The girl made her feel inferior; she had a beautiful yet dangerous look to her. She had pretty raven black hair to around her waist, eyes that pierced the soul and a broom she held as if she were ready to strike. She must have been a priestess, judging by the sacred looking red and white robe she wore.   
"Well, I need help." Renée finally stated. "I just got here, alone, and I kind of…" She looked off to the side where a crow stood eating seeds. The crow looked back at her.   
"Listen, I'm really, really sorry. I just… I need help." Raising her head slowly, she dared a look at the girl.   
"I need a place to stay," she managed to spit out.   
She continued before the girl got angry again. "I'm not saying I should stay here, but if you could direct me to someplace where I could bunk for a few nights that'd be great," Renée said as fast as she could. The girl's cold stare finally broke for a few moments. "Oh, well, I…. Guess you could stay here…" the girl stopped in a thoughtful pause. She didn't want to betray her instincts.   
"But it wouldn't be for long, and only if my grandfather agrees."   
Renée didn't seem to notice the conditions that came with her offer.   
"Oh thank you! I'll do anything to repay you, promise. My name's Renée, by the way. Wow, you have pretty birds here!" Renée got off the last step, bringing herself to her full 5'9", her hands in front of her chest. One of the ravens landed on the girl's shoulder as she starred questioningly at Renée. She regained her icy composure as she turned and rolled her eyes, motioning for Renée to follow her.   
"You've got the room, so your fake compliments are useless and embarrassing. I'm Hino Rei. You can stay in one of our rooms until you find a place to stay, as long if it's all right with my grandfather. I doubt it won't be long before we do find you another place to stay, so don't unpack," Rei had led her into the temple, and now pointed the room out before walking away.   
"Hey, I was serious about liking your birds!" Renée called out after her, trying to win any respect from Rei. Unsuccessful, she rubbed her forehead and entered her room with her head lowered. What had she gotten herself into? 

Looking around the room as the light from outside dimmed, she struggled with her thoughts as she tried to take every recent even in. The bright, inviting room with polished floors with simple yet beautiful, wooden furniture seemed to completely contrast where Renée thought she had ended up emotionally. So far, Renée had been completely uptight and nervous as she neatly unpacked the few belongings she had brought around the room. It was against Rei's orders, but she had nothing else to do. Now it was only her mind and her, which made her even more nervous. _I hope I act appropriately here,_ she thought. _Should I leave the room? Or wait until I am invited? Oh, I'm so hungry. What do I do about that? Maybe I should have told Rei my first and last name. Crap! She might think my last name is Renée! Why did I get on that boat? I had to… Why'd I end up here!!_   
Renée growled in anger, trying to force her mind to go blank. Her stomach started to hurt again, so she at last caved in and left the bedroom. There had to be someone here willing to help her. Renée slid the door open and peeked her head outside. Rei's grandfather was walking down the hallway when he spotted her.   
"Ah! You must be the young girl Rei said needed a place to stay for the night. But don't worry about what Rei says, a pretty girl like you can stay here as long as you need!" He grinned up at her, his hands behind his back.   
Renée faked a smile at the remark, trying to take it as a compliment. However, she couldn't help but feel as if the man meant something else when he said it.   
"Well, thank you… umm… sir…" Renée desperately searched her brain, trying to think of something to call him that'd be proper. Mr. Hino probably wouldn't cut it. Luckily for her, he didn't object to the English reference in any way at all.   
"Umm, would you mind directing me to a place where I could eat?"   
Rei's grandfather raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Oh, don't worry about eating someplace else! Just go down the hall, I believe Rei is preparing tea and dumplings at this very moment."   
Renée thanked him again, before walking down the hallway tensely. She slid the door open to find Rei sitting by a table.   
"Yes?" Rei looked up at her, as if playing a cruel game to see how'd she react this time. "Well, your grandfather kinda invited me to eat with you…" Renée said with clenched teeth.   
_Great,_ thought Rei, _force me to eat with the stranger_. Despite her thoughts, Rei pushed the plate of dumplings towards Renée. Renée sat down silently; picking one up carefully with her hands while Rei just eyed her oddly.   
"So…" Rei couldn't help but stare at the bewildered guest; she was certainly not used to the food. Renée eventually started cramming the morsel into her mouth, similarily to someone Rei knew well, so Rei dropped the thought and decided to take the opportunity to learn more about the house guest.  
"Where are you from?"   
Rei finally asked, deciding the timing was right. Renée looked up in surprise, a mouthful of food in the side of her cheek. Trying to swallow it in time to respond, she looked down at her dumpling before responding.   
"Well, Canada," Renée responded shyly. Rei looked down at the table herself, but did not wait long before continuing her mission.  
"Why are you here?"   
_Gah! The questions aren't stopping, are they?_ Renée thought. She prepared herself with a deep sigh before continuing with lies. She hoped she could pull this off.   
"Well, actually, it was all an accident. I came on the wrong boat; I was supposed to take one to the United States. I was looking for a job."   
"Oh… why didn't you just stay in Canada?"   
Rei just wouldn't stop, would she? Renée prayed the interrogation would end soon. "I wanted to get as far away as possible from the orphanage I came from. Awful place. I would have stayed if they weren't hunting me down."   
Rei just sat silently starring at her, taken back slightly by what she had heard. It just didn't sound plausible, but Rei had to admit she knew little about that country and it's ways, so she had no real way to judge what could be right or wrong. Renée felt Rei's eyes watching her as she starred down at her food, trying not to blush. Was Rei possibly studying her face for lies? After an eternity, Rei got up, giving up her search. Renée assumed that meant she believed her.   
"Well," said Rei, "I'll just take this back." Without any questions left, Rei had no other purpose there but to pick up the tray off the table and carry it out of the room. 

During the next week, the Hikawa shrine was pretty quiet. Besides from grandpa's havoc and Yuuichiro's mistakes, all was normal. Actually, Renée soon learned that all of this was normal. While Rei was in school, Renée picked up on some of the chores. Everyone welcomed her warmly, including the strange hair-styled blonde girl that once came to the door. Everyone did, except Rei. Rei hardly talked to her, except to explain chores and to tell her what to do. Renée didn't understand why – she did everything Rei told her to do, and pretty darn well, too.  
One day Renée caught Rei talking on some type of mini-computer, embedded in her watch.   
"Oooo, computer!" Renée cooed at the sight of the cute little thing.   
Rei closed it briskly. "You could say that. What do you want?"   
"You're having a party tonight?!"   
"No, a study group," Rei said calmly as she re-adjusted her robe, hiding the wristwatch in her hand with ease.   
Renée saw this as an opportunity; maybe Rei would lighten up to her a bit! "Oh, oh, can I come? I could help with homework!"   
"You don't go to school!"   
"So? That means I'll be more alert to help others!"   
Rei sighed. "Fine. It's not like we do much studying anyway…"   
"Thank you!" Renée praised, completely surprised, but excited, by the answer. Finally, she could meet more people!   
Rei winced at the girl's reactions, embarrassed for her. _Should I have let her come?_ She paused to think, regretting her actions from a moment of weakness. _I had to let her come,_ she decided, _the other girls would find out about her eventually._   
Renée continued sweeping, but now almost dancing in the meantime with a grin plastered on her face – at last there was something to look forward to besides chores! A break in her monotonous schedule was much needed.   
Rei stared at her for a few moments; puzzled by the way she was acting. It was almost humorous. In fact, Rei nearly laughed at one point when Renée twirled, lost her balance, and fell down.   
Catching herself in time, however, Rei just snorted. This girl was bad news, another burden; she shouldn't, she couldn't, show any sign of warmth. 

When the study group had finally arrived later that night, Renée was briefly introduced to each one of them. There was Minako, Makoto, Ami and Usagi. They had all come together, and were clearly the greatest of friends.   
All four of them were much more welcoming to Renée than Rei had been. Makoto had brought snacks for them all to share, and Usagi had brought comic books. However, Ami had quickly confiscated all of them before Usagi even had a chance to explain them to Renée.   
After the comic books were taken and the food completely eaten by Usagi and herself alone, Renée had nothing else to do but let her mind wander. She glanced around the room, trying to imagine the house each girl would live in.   
_Boy, they are so lucky; _thought Renée, _these girls get to live normal lives with good friends._   
Suddenly a quick, warm brush against her leg woke her from her train of thought.   
"Oh, who is this cutie!" exclaimed Renée, spotting the black cat that had hit her.   
"She's mine!" said Usagi, looking for any excuse to ignore her schoolwork. Renée picked her up, rubbing the cat's head gently. Usagi smiled.   
"Her name's Luna," Usagi said as she put her pen down.   
"She is so cute," swooned Renée again.   
"I'm guessing you like cats!" Usagi giggled.   
"Oh I love 'em. Aww, what's this mark on her forehead?" Renée brushed her index finger against the crescent marking on Luna's face. Usagi suddenly went silent, not sure how to answer.   
"Oh, that!" cried Minako, as if a joke had just been explained to her, "it's a scar."   
The room was now filled with tension as Luna leaped from Renée's grasp, right over to Minako's lap. Renée was obviously making everyone uncomfortable. She didn't think she'd be such a burden asking one question, but it was clear she had disturbed them somehow. With a mental sigh, she knew she had been given the clue to leave.   
"Umm, I'll think I'll leave. I'm kind of tired. Nice meeting you all! Goodnight!"   
Everyone wished her goodnight as she slid the door closed. As soon as she shut it behind her, the false smile on her face disappeared. She made her way back to her room in the darkness, greatly discouraged. 

"What was that?" Makoto said, raising herself over the table.   
"What was what?" asked Usagi.   
"I know what you mean, Makoto-chan, like a weird feeling, right?" Minako exclaimed, surprised her friend felt the same way she did.   
"Now you guys know what I've been feeling all week," said Rei, "it's unsettling, isn't it."   
"I didn't feel anything bad, just something…" Makoto pondered.   
"What are you feeling?" asked Usagi, oblivious to what was going on.   
"I think I know what you three are talking about," said Ami. "A weird feeling from Renée-san, right?"   
"Yeah yeah," said Makoto, "something's up with that girl."   
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" cried a frustrated Usagi.   
Before anyone could answer Usagi, a beeping noise cut in. Minako reached into her bag, pulling out an orange watch.   
"Artemis is in trouble," she said abruptly, getting up, shoving the watch in her pocket in a rush.   
"What? How can that be?" Usagi whined in despair. "Not more fighting…" 

Before even making it back to her room, Renée stopped, hearing Makoto make some kind of fuss. Leaning against the door silently, she overheard words about herself; something that was never a good sign.   
"Why the hell did I get on that boat," she muttered, regretting the moment she had started to actually look forward to meeting new people, and trying to fit in.   
After Usagi had shouted out about her confusion, though, it went dead silent; something Renée wasn't expecting at all. Moving closer to the door, until she was right in front of it, even leaning on it, she tried to hear what was going on. A lot of worried whispering took place, before the door suddenly whipped open. Losing her balance, Renée landed head first into the room.   
"Eh heh, hi?" Renée said with a grin, but she was clearly worried. She braced herself for some yelling; she knew Rei would let her have it for listening in on private conversations.   
Strangely enough, Rei wasn't there. She and most of the other girls had already left the room, gone through the open door opposite to Renée. Even the cat was gone. Usagi walked over Renée as quickly as she could, and came back into sight almost as suddenly as she left.   
"Left my shoes at the other door," Usagi smiled as she walked over Renée again.   
"Don't worry, we'll be back soon. School emergency," she said as she got both her shoes on, and finally ran out the door.   
Renée let a sigh of relief escape her, praying thanks for that break of luck.   
"If that were Rei… where are they going in such a rush?"   
Renée grabbed her own shoes and after a struggle and some curse words, started her pursuit. 

Minako was in the lead, pushing herself to get to the park as fast as she could. Artemis had sounded very worried and feeble, so she tried to go even faster at the thought.   
"Hurry up!" She shouted, looking back.   
In the shadows of bushes and tree trunks, Renée tried to follow them from a distance. Her plan wasn't working though; she nearly lost them, twice. So picking up her dash to a hard run, she ran straight at them. No one had noticed she was right behind them, her plan working perfectly, until she tripped on her own shoelace. Only Rei turned around, the rest of the girls continued to run.   
"I knew it," Rei groaned. "You just can't seem to get a clue. Do me a favour, and stay right there," Rei said, "or I'll make sure you stay there. Don't be a moron, it's for your own good!"   
Rei quickly ran off into the park, leaving Renée in her spot.   
"How dare she?!" yelled an angry Renée, getting up slowly with fists curled.   
"HHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOONKKKK!!!!!!!" The headlights of a giant truck caused Renée to dive forwards, landing into more bushes. She had been standing in the middle of the road. Spitting out a leaf that had gotten into her mouth, Renée shook with anger as she scowled and stamped a foot. 

"Artemis!" cried Minako, picking up the beaten white cat, but Artemis struggled from her grasp to the ground.   
"I'm fine, Minako, trust me. But the guy lying over there isn't," Artemis tried to point with a paw, but fell in pain.   
"You aren't fine," said Luna, helping him to his feet again.   
Ami was already at the man who was face first in the grass.   
"He needs medical attention, as soon as possible," Ami turned on her computer, using it as temporary phone.   
"You better do that fast, because the creature responsible is still loose and chasing more victims," Artemis informed the five girls. "Hurry up and follow the path, it followed more people that way."   
Minako nodded to Artemis, pulling out her orange transformation pen. 

Renée finally reached the study group, hidden in the bushes surrounding the path. The park was a serene setting, a lake off to the side glowing in the light of a full moon, the evenly placed lampposts flooding the path with light.  
Oddly, Renée noted, it was dead silent. No birds, no bugs, nothing.   
Suddenly, her attention was drawn back to the study group, when they all started shouting. They seemed to yell out similar phrases, while they held something in the air.  
In their hands seemed to be coloured sticks, which disappear into brilliant flashes of light. Instantaneously, they were wearing sailor-like uniforms in different colours.   
Usagi seemed to wait a bit before she did the same with a brooch she pulled from her pocket, following them with the transformation.   
"What the hell-" Renée stumbled back in alarm, her jaw falling while squinting her eyes to be sure she was really seeing this. 

"Luna, you take care of Artemis," instructed Minako while the other four girls hurried down the path Artemis had talked about.   
"And Artemis?" Minako winked while she talked, "next time you do something as dumb as this, I'm putting you on dog food!"   
Artemis shook his head at the poor attempt at humour, causing Minako to giggle shortly before she finally followed the others. 

The girls were already gone by the time Renée had managed herself out of the bushes. "Hey!" exclaimed Luna, who had stayed behind next to Artemis, "how did you get here?!"   
"Gah! She talks! Oh man, this is so screwed!"   
Luna's head shot back, completely shocked when she realized her mistake, but growled after a moment of recollection.   
"Get back here, you can't go with them!"   
While Luna had gathered herself again after her mistake, Renée had already turned left and started following the soldiers.   
"Luna, you should follow her," Artemis said while turning his head with great effort. He was clearly tired and scratched up.   
"She will probably get in their way," he finished. Luna gave him an unsure look. "Trust me, I'll be fine!"   
Luna nodded. "That's exactly what I was thinking. Don't you move anywhere, I'll be back."   
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Artemis mused, causing Luna to turn around.   
"No pun intended! You're going to make me lose her!"   
With that, Luna took off after Renée. 

The Sailor Soldiers stopped dead where they found the monster just about to attack another helpless man. The monster held the man by the neck against a tree, while his girlfriend screamed.   
"Stop right there, Olympic reject!" Minako stuck an accusing finger out at the monster clad in a track-like suit. It turned to her, tilting its head like a confused puppy. Its pigtails bounced and eyes sparkled.   
"Err, let him go…?" Minako raised an eyebrow as she talked. This wasn't the killing machine she had expected.   
The monster smiled as she slapped the man with the back of her hand to the ground, without even a second look. She bounced a ball at her side and giggled.   
The man ran off for cover.   
"Crazy blondie! Do YOU have the key?"   
It was Minako's turn to tilt her head. "Err, no. But I have a chain! Venus Love Me Chain!"   
Venus whipped the chain of light out at the monster, but the monster easily leaped out of its way and landed on a tree branch. She started dribbling the ball, faster and faster.   
Minako frowned. "Too easy. Now let's try this again."   
"Venus Love Me-" Minako had started whipping her light chain in circles over her head like a lasso, but just as Minako was going to finish the thing off, it attacked. The monster threw its ball at her so fast; Minako didn't have time to react.  
It all seemed to happen in slow motion, as the monster's ball smashed into her abdomen, throwing her back like a rag doll. She slammed into a tree and slid to the ground, leaving her struggling for breath and the back of her uniform torn and bloody against the tree's bark. She held her stomach gently but protectively, wheezing in deep breaths, her eyes damp and blank, as if she were somewhere else.   
"Sailor Venus!" her friends cried out in near unison. Usagi stepped out from the back of the group.   
"Alright, monster, you've been cut! A pretty suited soldier, Sailor Moon! In the name of the moon, I will punish you!"   
The monster laughed. "Do what you want, but you'll never stop me! The messenger of ice through wind will never be stopped! Winds of the North, come forth!"   
With that, she volleyed her ball into the air, and before it dropped, a powerful, Arctic wind had come in from behind the soldiers. The monster caught her ball before the wind could push it out of her reach, surprisingly moving with little effort in the gales. She grinned as she watched the soldiers wrench around in pain, the wind howling against their backs.   
"Now if you are done bothering me, I have a couple more humans to catch!"   
She winked and skipped off deeper into the park, where more civilians were bound to be. "It's so COLD!" Rei cried as she tried to take shelter behind a tree. Everything seemed to be developing a layer of frost.   
"What the hell is going on?" Renée asked with sincere confusion, stepping out from behind the tree next to Rei's. Luna had pulled her behind it before Minako had been hurt. Luna now stood beside her, a permanent scowl on her face.   
"RENÉE! I TOLD YOU TO STAY AWAY! I knew I couldn't trust you!" Rei shouted, taking out all her frustration, some of it undeserved, on the newcomer.   
Renée shamefully looked at the ground for a moment, but instead of backing down, she looked up with her own anger. "Trusting me?! You are the one who was talking about me behind my back, the one being rude to me, the one who must be lying to me to cover all this nonsense up! I don't care if I don't have a uniform, or a magic stick, I'm helping! I may be new, useless and dumb, for all I care, but I am living here now, and I feel that gives me the responsibility to help out with fighting… whatever the hell that is!" Renée finally lost her courage again once she stumbled on the subject of the monster, backing off away from Rei.   
Strangely enough, Rei slightly smiled; the last reaction Renée was expecting. "Ok," she agreed, "this time stay here. Trust me for once. I'll go catch that thing. You help," she looked over at her other friends. "Minako's already being helped by Makoto, but you could-"  
Rei stopped dead when she saw her princess start to run after the monster.   
"USAGI!" she cried in desperation, "NO!"   
Rei took off after her in complete panic.   
Renée looked over at the girl she was supposed to help up. From where she sat, it seemed Minako was almost in shock as Makoto nursed her; but what was done was done, and she couldn't let that happen to the little bunny girl.   
Renée darted out from the bushes, causing both Luna and Ami to gasp. "Hey, you STOP!" Ami shouted as Luna tried to bite her leg, but Renée dodged and kept going. If she could run fast enough, she could make sure Usagi wasn't hit. All she could think about was running faster and protecting Usagi. The wind bit at her bare arms and made her lungs ache. The pain made her wonder a bit about why she was doing this. Why was she risking her health, maybe her life, to protect someone she just met? Her instinct to protect Usagi, however, was stronger than her doubt.   
She could now see them in a short distance; Usagi had a sceptre in her hand. The monster was having a shouting match with Rei, it's face curled in a sneer. Renée could see Rei was not facing the monster dead on; she was angled, maybe preparing to throw something herself. However, she saw Rei get nailed with the ball in the side of the arm when Rei had had enough and tried to power up an attack. Rei fell back hard enough to bounce as she hit the ground. Renée had run up to her just in time to hear her give a soft moan as she became motionless. The monsters's ball returned to its owner, the monster turning to hit Usagi next. Usagi wailed and covered her face with crossed arms, causing the monster to laugh with delight.   
The monster had just wound up a throw as Renée reached Usagi and shoved her out of the way. The monster seemed to defy human abilities as she tossed the ball with lightning speed in their direction. The last thing Renée remembered was the pain of the crushing blow to her chest and a pulse from her forehead before falling over. 

"Hey!" exclaimed the monster, clenching her fists in frustration. A new damn brat had gotten in her way! And worse, she caught her ball! The monster growled and stamped her foot down. She had wanted to hit the small, tiny girl with blond hair - her master had told her to. Apparently she was full of power, and could be trouble to their mission.   
"Mmmrrr, not when I'm around!!!" cried the monster, throwing her fists into the air. "You're dead-!" the monster tried to roar, but was rudely interrupted.   
"Supreme Thunder!" Makoto cried with power, thundering in with her own attack at the monster. The wind had nearly stopped now, but it still gave enough push to help make it easier for Makoto to forcefully throw her attack into the monsters face as she jumped.   
"Come on, you've met your match, so why don't you fight?" Makoto teased.  
The monster was thrown back, somersaulting backwards on the ground before silently coming to a stop on her knees. Makoto continued to threaten it.   
"You afraid? Come on, let's go! You'll die for what you've done!" 

Usagi looked back at Renée, knowing she was safe for the moment with Makoto there to help. This gave her a chance to see how badly Renée had been hurt.   
Renée's injuries were suddenly forgotten when Usagi's eyes her drawn to the faint light coming from Renée's forehead.   
"Oh my goodness, she's one of us?" gasped Usagi, kneeling down next to her.   
"Renée? Can you hear me?" Usagi desperately tried shaking Renée awake. "Renée, wake up! You've got to wake up! You can't… wake up!"   
Suddenly Renée made a few quick, choking like noises. Then she turned onto her side and started to snore.   
"Err… I guess she'll be ok. Sailor Jupiter I'm coming!"   
Usagi held her princess sceptre in her right hand as she got up with effort. 

The monster looked at the two opposite soldiers she now faced. To its fear, a third one came in, sporting a little computer and matching visor. Now with their determination and a need for vengeance in the air, they were a lot more intimidating. She felt like she didn't stand a chance. In a last attempt, she ripped off her headband from her hair and threw it in between the three. It landed at Usagi's feet.   
"Umm, was that supposed to do something?" She bent down and poked it a few times. Catching all three off guard, it expanded upwards to wrap around the three last soldiers. Before they knew it, Usagi, Ami and Makoto were piled up on each other, their arms pinned down at their waists so hard they couldn't move.   
"Oww, I can't breathe!" wailed Usagi.   
"Don't even think of attacking Sailor Jupiter!" Ami exclaimed, knowing her friend too well.   
"But I can zap this thing!" whined Makoto.   
"Sailor Moon, you're small, maybe you can wiggle out." Ami suggested.   
"Maybe if you weren't on TOP of me!" Usagi snapped back.   
This bickering went on for a few minutes as the monster retreated into the forest. 

Renée slowly opened her eyes. Everything in front of her was blurry and grey. She groaned as she sat up, the monsters enchanted ball rolling off her chest. She rubbed her neck, but stopped suddenly with a gasp from the pain. Where the ball hit her was a huge welt left in its place. It had even broken the skin around her neck. She had never seen a wound like that before!   
Usagi! The thought of the tiny girl flashed across her mind. Was she all right? Did she get away? Renée looked around to see no one. Actually, Rei was laying 10 feet away from her. Where did the others go? Where was the other injured one, Minako? Renée finally got up. She had to help them, no matter what.   
The pain, though, held her back to the ground like reins. "I… can't." A sob escaped from her throat for a moment. "Why can't I help? I want to help!" She finally gave in and slid to her knees, caking the shins of her pants with dirt. But, no, she couldn't give up now. She was going to help anyway she could!   
She eventually climbed back to her feet, trying to push the pain from her mind and concentrate on something else. That's when she finally noticed a dim, flickering light flashing off the trees. She walked toward the light, slowly realizing where it's point of origin was - her forehead!   
She ran her fingers across her face, the light changing from a fading pulse to a strong beam.   
Almost as soon as the light became stronger, the noise of zapping electricity flared out from the small ball of silvery, dancing light that had formed from nothing right before her. When she reached out to touch it, the light disappeared in one final flash.   
A black circular object dropped from where the light had been. With the slightest thump, the clearly heavy object hit the ground. Glancing around in the solitude of the once again silent night, Renée finally dared herself to gently pick it up.   
Inspecting it closer, Renée ran her fingers over the ebony circle.   
It looked as if a bird was carved in the middle, and the tiniest of crystals sat in the centre of the bird's eye. The white gem caught the lamplight and shone a rainbow of colours from its core.   
She closed her fist around it, knowing it had to be something good. "Rei, Rei!" She ran over to Rei, her raven hair sprawled around her.   
"Rei! Wake up! Rei?!" Renée whispered hoarsely. Rei responded to Renée's worried cry with a groan. "Rei, I know you are in pain, but I need your help. Look what I found!" Rei remained still, only the steady rising and falling of her chest revealing life was still there.   
That reminded Renée how it was becoming painful for her to breathe. She looked down at the crest in her hand, the pain in her own chest throbbing with each breath.   
Disappointed, Renée bitterly talked to the crest before throwing it as hard as she could in her state.   
"C'mon you stupid crest, do something! Useless," she muttered as she flung it into the air.   
But halfway in its fall, the crest stopped in mid air!   
"What the-?" cried Renée when it didn't budge from its place. It just twirled in the same spot, just about the same height of Renée's head.   
Renée walked over to it calmly, respecting the pain with each breath until she stopped right under it. Reaching out to grab it, light shot out from it and seemed to splash against the ground. Screaming out in surprise, the same electric noise flooded over her as the light became more intense. She was so scared she tried to let go, but couldn't.   
Even through the noise, the most gentle of whispers seemed to float from above her, instructing her to say something.   
"This is your chance, my girl. Command the crystal: Phoenix Power, Make-up!"   
Renée whispered the words with caution and the light wrapped around her from all sides at command. She felt the cold of metal against her bare skin before the warmth of the light reached and enveloped her limbs. This rush of energy into her body seemed to happen almost instantly, and when the ideal was over, she wore a sailor suit just like the others!   
"How did- what the?" She shook her head. She didn't need to question now; she felt empowered! She looked at the staff that now lay in her hands. The pain seemed to be lessening with the new energy she felt, allowing her to stand more upright. Grasping her staff with her right hand, she knew what she had to do now. She could go help the others! As if destiny were at work, her thoughts were rewarded with a few familiar cries. 

Luna stepped from the shadows, in shock at the power display she had seen from Renée. Puzzled, she kept her thoughts to herself as she began her return to Artemis. 

Renée ran through a few trees, coming to a clearing where Ami, Makoto and Usagi were all wrapped up together.   
"I'm coming, guys!" Renée consoled, reaching them at last.   
She started to pull at the thing that held them together. It was so tight she couldn't even get her fingers under it. She flipped her staff and knelt down so she rested the top half on the ground, holding the bottom part with one hand while she tried to get a grip on the strange bind with the other. Her staff had a dagger like end, so she tried cutting with it. Eventually the bind snapped, and Ami and Makoto rolled off Usagi.   
"Hey thanks, Renée," Usagi said gratefully, getting up to face her rescuer. As soon as she looked up, she jumped back with a yelp.   
"Who are you?!" she exclaimed, bumping into Makoto.   
"What do you mean, Usagi, you knew my name ten minutes ago!" Renée almost laughed, thinking it was a joke.   
Usagi squinted in confusion. The girl had sounded like Renée… "Go look at yourself in the lake… Renée."   
Renée walked up to the waters edge and looked down.   
She now had pitch-black hair and-cat ears?! She jumped back, gasping, throwing her hands to her head. There were really ears there.   
Looking down at herself, she noticed she wore the same outfit as the other girls in her own colours; blue bows, purple skirt, and the body seemed to be even silver.   
She studied her gloved hands, where she noticed her nails seemed to poke from her gloves. Or where they nails? They seemed extremely hard and shone like chrome. She turned around to inspect her back bow when she noticed she had a tail!! What had that weird crest done to her?!   
"AHH! What happened to me?!" she shakily cried.   
"Calm down, Renée-san," said Ami, "if you are another Sailor Soldier, maybe this is reversible. Like our transformations."   
Although, Ami's comforting words didn't seem to match her questioning expression. "C'mon," yelled Makoto, "We've got to get that monster!"   
Makoto had reached the end of the clearing, and was scanning the muddy ground for any footprints. Usagi's directions had reminded Renée of how surreal the events happening were – the powers, the monsters, her new appearance, and the strangest of them all, the fact that she had been bestowed powers. Why would she be given powers? What was going on? Usagi's simple little instruction to look at herself had brought everything back into perspective: all confidence one has when reality isn't a sure thing gone. Makoto was suddenly ambushed from above., snapping Renée back from her nervous breakdown.  
Coming from an angle, the monster jumped from a tree to Makoto's left, kicking her in the face hard enough to knock her out completely.   
"I was told by my sensei to stop you guys before you cause any more trouble for us!" explained the monster, "so, you're done!!!"   
She started powering up a blue-yellow ball of light in her hands. Renée was sick and tired of what was going on, especially this creature. After all, it was the reason of everything that had happened. Renée darted into the cover of the shrubbery.   
"BYE BYE SAILOR GIRLS!" The monster wound up its arm like a baseball player, but mysteriously her eyes went blank with a thwacking noise, and she collapsed to her knees in mid throw. The ball of light dispersed as she fell face first. Renée stood behind her, smirking, as she held her staff with force. She had hit the monster extremely hard over the head with the crystal top of her staff.   
"Nice one, Renée!" Usagi excitedly encouraged.   
Makoto slowly got up, taking her time to come back to consciousness.   
"So… Sailor Kitty Cat knocked it out?" Makoto smiled while rubbing her head. Her lip bled, but she didn't seem to notice.   
"That was cold," Renée said in disgust, but couldn't help but laugh afterwards.   
Usagi had already started powering up an attack to finish off the creature, while Ami helped Makoto stand up completely.   
"Well, if no one else has any idea who she is," explained Makoto to no one in particular, "and she doesn't know, who else could she be? She has cat ears and tail. It's a perfect name. Get out of the way of Usagi's attack, Sailor Kitty! Works, doesn't it?" 

After the monster had been destroyed, everyone met up in the same place they had found Artemis; the cat announcing an ambulance had arrived and taken away the unconscious stranger once everyone had returned. Everyone was somehow bruised and even bloodied, but no one was seriously injured. With exhaustion, they all agreed with few words that they'd meet the next day and discuss the night's events, everyone wanting more than anything to go home and rest. As they split up after transforming back to normal, Luna silently walked up to Ami and hopped onto her shoulders.   
"I don't like this," Luna whispered into her ear, "since when was there a sixth soldier with cat ears? I don't recognize her at all…"  
Ami glanced over at the cat, who was now perched on her right shoulder. "What are you talking about?"   
"I'll come over when Usagi is busy. I'll need your help to figure this out."   
With that, she bounced off onto the pavement and bounded over after Usagi. 

After a few minutes of walking back to the temple, Rei finally broke the silence. "Well, Renée, now you know our secret. And keep it that way, or you'll be staying somewhere else." Rei threatened, as she and Renée walked very slowly, both severely bruised. Renée sighed with a smile.   
"Alright alright, but you are going to have to explain some of this to me, because I may know your secret, but I don't get anything about it!"   
Rei completely forgot her cruel note and smiled with pride as she stated she'd explain it all in the morning. "Don't worry, we'll figure out what happened, and we'll beat this new enemy easily!"   
"New enemy, you've had more than one?"   
"Of course we have! How'd you think we knew what we were doing, or that we were so good at fighting?"   
Renée mumbled, "It didn't look like you were too good at the fighting thing…"  
"WHAT!? How can you SAY that?!"   
As the two argued all the way home, Renée couldn't help to feel a twinge of acceptance.   
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.


	2. Part 2

The sun shone through the rice paper doors into Renée's face. Her eyes slowly pried open but then shut again as she turned over.   
However, her peaceful sleep was quickly interrupted, as she sat up like lightning at a girl's startled cry. Wanting to know what was wrong, she leapt from her bed and made a run for the door. But against the hardwood floor, her socks caused her to slide onto her backside.   
Lately I've been doing that a lot, she though as she slowly got up. 

It had been two days since that strange fight. Renee's body still ached from the weird, giant bruise on her chest - a persistent reminder of a battle she'd sooner forget, a persistent reminder that the battle had been all too real. What had been strangest of all to Renée, though, was the story Rei had told her.   
Rei had explained to her every bit she could about the Moon Kingdom. According to her story, Usagi had been the princess of the Moon Kingdom during the Silver Millennium, which took place a thousand years ago. Rei, Minako, Makoto and Ami had been the princesses of the four nearest planets (excluding earth, Renée had found it quite hilarious that earth had a prince instead of a princess) who protected Usagi. These guardians where known as the Sailor Soldiers; Rei was Sailor Mars, Minako was Sailor Venus, Makoto was Sailor Jupiter and Ami was Sailor Mercury. With their own planet granting them powers to protect the Moon Princess, they guarded her and her kingdom.   
There was also the Dark Kingdom, who wanted to take over the Moon and it's legendary crystal, the Silver Crystal. They had invaded Earth and used it for military purposes, explaining why the love interest of Usagi, Prince Edymon of Earth, had to be sneaky about visiting his love (Renée also found this entertaining, too, wondering why Usagi would waste her time with a loser from Earth. Renée herself was confused by the comment, but laughed long and hard anyway.).   
When the Dark Kingdom had finally attacked, everything was destroyed, and almost everyone was killed. The Moon Queen, who had survived the surprise attack, managed to use the Silver Crystal and the rest of her energy to reincarnate every innocent creature to Earth, the only somewhat surviving planet. Killing herself in the process, she sent the evil far back into space out of harms way, and everyone else to be reborn in the present time. Usagi also became a Sailor Soldier, to protect the Earth, and Usagi's love (the only male Sailor Soldier, Renée concluded, and went into a fit of laughter again) became Tuxedo Mask, or Mamoru.   
Then Rei had told her about the continuation of the Dark Kingdom war, and how they had all died and came back to life by the power of the Silver Crystal again (this freaked Renée out, just slightly). Then she explained the other enemy, the Dark Moon family, and Usagi's daughter, which both came from the future (which also freaked Renée out, just slightly).   
It was a ton to absorb in just a weekend, and seemed too unreal to be more than a legend. But there was no denying her transformation the past Friday night; the tale was true to the end. 

Now Monday, Renée rubbed her tailbone while stiffly walking to the door. Sliding it open fully, she realized it had been her hostess that had given out the scream.   
"I'm going to be late!" Rei shouted as she ran down the hall. "I can't believe this! This doesn't happen to ME!"   
Renée walked further out of her room, leaning casually against the wooden doorframe. Rei rushed by again, running into her room to change.   
"Oh, don't worry, you won't be late. It's only," Renée glanced at her watch. "Oh, you're right, you ARE going to be late."   
Darting back the other way - now fully dressed - to grab some breakfast, Rei grumbled to no one in particular.   
"It's because of that stupid fight, I'm _stil_l damned tired. I just can't get up on time! And my arm is killing me!"   
Rei tore back to her room to grab her homework.   
"Heh, and I guess that late night meeting on Saturday wasn't helpful, was it?" Renee added with a slight grimace.   
Rei groaned as she hurried by, "No, it wasn't! Thanks to Usagi and Mamoru. They just had to keep us waiting 2 hours! There's a big difference between 7 and 9 o'clock!"   
"Yeah, and that late night chat last night about you guys being soldiers wasn't helpful neither, now was it…" Renee pointed out purposefully.   
Rei hopped around, trying to get her shoe on.   
"NO! No it wasn't," Stopping, Rei turned to look at her once uninvited guest, "Why are you telling me this?!"   
"So you have something _else_ to blame instead of getting angry at me. It's not your fault you're sleep deprived but nor was it MINE. Just making that clear."   
"Well, if you're so calm, do my morning chores for me - feed the crows, sweep the steps, clean the fire place, wash the dishes and don't forget to clean your room," Rei declared in a self important tone, poking Renee in the chest with the announcement of each task.   
Renee, in turn, raised an indignant eyebrow at the fiery Priestess.   
"What, I'm Cinderella now? I'll get right on it, Mistress," Renee mocked, taking a small bow, "But, why should I clean my room? You're not my mother."   
"But you're irresponsible enough for me to be!" Rei snapped as she stormed out the door.   
"Hey, who's the one late for school?!" Renée whipped out at her.   
"Who's the one not GOING to school?" Rei shot back.   
Renée grumbled as she went to get the birdseed. 

After Renée had finished all of Rei's chores, she went back to her room. Flopping backwards onto her bed, she hurt her back, forgetting how far it was to the floor. She missed her old bed, her western ways. Turning awkwardly onto her side, she diverted her sorrow eyes from the ceiling to the wall. It had been around two weeks since she got here, and she had had just about enough of Japan. First the welcoming committee made up of a hostile Rei and a monster, then a bruise that felt more like a broken rib cage. Plus she had discovered that she was part of some ancient group that fended off evil and protected royalty. Great, she though, history was always her worse subject.   
Renée finally raised her sorry corpse off the bed on her elbow, glancing around the room. "Rei's right, it IS messy. And with the few things I have, that's impressive!"   
Renée leaned back onto her bed, smiling at her disaster-struck room. Rei couldn't possibly make her clean it, it was the last link she had to her old room! But the memory of her old room just opened the floodgates in her mind, filling it with thoughts of things she missed.   
"I miss English signs. I could read those. I also miss the radio, the video games, but most of all T.V…"  
Renée suddenly jerked up onto her elbow. That's what made her so lonely, TV! There was no TV in here! What a horrible way to live!   
"How horrible is it when your life depends on TV?!" She told herself out loud in a shameful, astounded note. She shook her head. She didn't want to think about any more personality flaws she had.   
Well, Rei lived without TV. More correctly, Rei HATED TV. How could she? What did she do around here for entertainment? Renée sighed as she thought back to Canada. She knew she was covering up the more important things she missed by thinking of the simpler things. But she couldn't think like that - she had to start fresh now, and that was hard to her. Right now, she was foreign to this country. It'd be a while before she'd get used to this…

Rei scribbled down the notes her sensei placed on the board. The bell rang in mid scratch of the chalk. "Oh dear, seems like we'll have to finish this tomorrow," she disappointedly turned to announce, "alright, school's dismissed."   
Rei packed up her school bag and headed for the door. Finally when she finished the two flights of stairs, she was met with the beautiful sunshine. The wind gently rearranged the strands of hair in her bangs and played with the long ones that fell straight behind her. The heat from the sun warmed her colder skin with a soft intensity. It really was a beautiful spring day.   
Suddenly a car pulled up on the curb, startling Rei from her peaceful trance. Usagi sat in the passenger side of the red car, hanging over Mamoru, the driver.   
"Hey you two!" Rei shouted with a grin, "what are you doing here?"   
"We just thought we'd give you a ride, since we were on our way to the temple anyway! We're holding a meeting, this time with Mamoru," she looked towards him with loving eyes, "Maybe he can help clear a few things up we couldn't!"   
Rei's smile went flat. "You organized something where I LIVE without asking ME?"   
"No, we were just on our way to the temple to ask you," Mamoru responded calmly.   
Rei ripped her eyes from Usagi to the ground, her face flushed in embarrassment and her arms hanging in front of her. She clutched her school bag and looked up at Usagi.   
"Well, as long as you didn't plan it without me. It's just the way you said it, Usagi."   
Rei slid into the back of the car as Mamoru shifted it into drive and sped down the street. 

Taking care of keeping her skirt in its place, Rei slid out of the car as fast a she could, depending mostly on her arms to get up. Ducking back in to grab her bag, Rei started planning everything out. "Alright, Usagi, start calling the others for this meeting," she started up the steps before continuing, "I have to get changed. I-"   
Looking back when she didn't here a second or third pair of footsteps, she noticed the other two hadn't even got out of the car. "You two are invited to come inside, you know," Rei joked.   
Rei walked past Renée's room to enter her own when she spotted the giraffe snoozing in bed.   
"Hey! Catnaps over!"   
Renée jolted upright. "Hehe-… Sorry about that."   
"Clearly you didn't clean your room, but did you do everything else?"   
"Yup," Renée crossed her arms and lifted her chin proudly.   
"Thanks. I'm going to go change. Oh, Usagi and Mamoru are here in the tearoom. Why don't you go meet them?"   
Rei walked away into her room. After Renée had heard her door slide shut, she finally found enough strength in her lazy body to get up.   
As soon as Renée entered the tearoom, all her attention was turned to the six-foot, dark haired guy that stood by Usagi. Renée did not want to be there all of a sudden.   
"Hey… Usagi? Who's this?"   
"Konichiwa, Renée-chan! Renée-chan, this is Chiba Mamoru. Mamo-chan meet …Renée!"   
Even with the lack of a last name, Usagi kept a bright disposition as she clung to his arm. But it didn't make a difference; Renée still was overwhelmed with a surge of disgust for the man. She didn't even know why, she was never so judgmental.   
"Hello… Mamoru," Renée said incorrectly. "So… he's your boyfriend?"   
Usagi blushed. But then she nodded.   
"So you're the guy we waited for Saturday," Renée said with venom. Mamoru shifted his weight and lifted his head slightly, sensing the dislike in her voice. Just then Rei walked in, back in her robes.   
"Have you contacted anyone yet?" she asked. Usagi shook her head innocently, not noticing Renée's cold shoulder.   
"Oh Usagi, we don't have all day! You call Minako-chan, and I'll call Ami-chan. Renée- we need to get you one of those things," Rei pointed to Usagi's wristwatch before taking her own off. "That'll make these kind of things a lot faster." Rei smiled and turned her attention to the machine.   
"They've got a TV, that's the best part!" Usagi spoke up while opening her own. Renée didn't respond though.   
"So, Renée is a soldier too, I hear," Mamoru stated instead of questioning. "Who is she?"   
Usagi looked up and grabbed onto his arm again. "We don't know who she is, where she's from or why she's here, but she's half cat when she transformed. It's cute! We were hoping you and your brain could help figure this out!"   
The attention Usagi gave him almost caused Renée to choke. She found herself glaring at him. 

It didn't take long for the rest of the girls to arrive. Soon they were discussing school, eating Makoto's treats, and trying to figure out the unanswered questions of the last meeting.   
Mamoru, though, provided no help. They ended up at a dead end like they were Saturday - there was no information to work with besides a cat Sailor Soldier and a sporty enemy. After a few hours they all returned home, praying that maybe this new enemy was a fluke. 

Ami entered the dark apartment and flicked the lights on. Her mother must have been working late again.   
She sighed as she tried to shut the door, when the startled mew of a cat came from under her feet, causing Ami to cry out in surprise.   
"Oh! Luna it's just you! You scared me!"   
Luna ran from under her and jumped onto the computer desk, getting comfortable as she sat down. "I did say I wanted to talk to you privately the other day. It's a good thing your mother isn't here."   
Ami nodded and flopped into the computer chair, exsausted.   
"Alright, Luna, what's on your mind?"   
Luna shook her head as if she didn't believe something, but she continued anyway.   
"I've been thinking this over, and you're probably going to hate me for this, but… I think Sailor Kitty might be related to the enemy."   
"What?!" Ami sat back. She didn't see how Luna had come up with such a farfetched conclusion.  
"Well, I've been thinking it over. There is evidence that is leading me to think this. The enemy didn't appear until she did. It didn't attack until she was settled into the temple, and we were comfortable with her. Plus, how did she defeat the monster so easily?"   
Luna drilled out a few of the ideas before stopping a moment, allowing them to settle into Ami's mind before continuing, "but a big point is that she isn't, or wasn't, a princess. She can't be a Sailor Soldier unless she was a princess. Only they had powers. Only they could be the guardians of the Moon Princess; the Sailor Soldiers. My memory of the Moon is still very fuzzy, but I remember my Princess and her guardians clearly, and she was never one of them."   
Ami clearly didn't believe it.   
"Now, Luna, with all due respect I have to doubt your theory. It can't be fair to accuse Renée of this so soon, with such minor points! She seems so nice, strange sense of humour maybe but nice. I can't see her as the type that'd lead an evil escapade. Remember, you thought I was the enemy once."   
Luna sighed. "That's exactly what I thought, and there's good reasons to completely doubt me. But I truly believe she can't be a Sailor Soldier. I... just have this gut feeling about her. If she's not from my planet or this galaxy, where could she have come from without our knowing? She could easily be a fraud!"   
Ami just sat there silently, thinking it over. "How'd she transform?"   
"Well, I'm not sure. I thought she looked genuinely surprised when it happened, but that could either have been an act, or it might not even have been surprise. One thing's for sure; she didn't use a pen like you girls. Or a brooch, for that matter. Her powers didn't even feel somewhat familiar. I might not be able to remember the Moon well, but I most certainly can remember the princesses and the people with powers."   
Ami quickly came up with another solution, trying to get Luna to explain everything that'd cause her to create such an elaborate conviction.  
"Are you sure? I mean, I don't believe you knew Sailor Pluto, the guardian of time. Not until just this year. There might be other soldiers out there you have no recollection of."  
Luna nodded intelligently. "I've considered this as well, but the guardian of time Sailor Pluto is also a princess, the princess of her planet. Her energy signature was new to me, but similar to all of yours. When Renée transformed, it felt nothing like your own. And for being a princess, she does not even have a name, Makoto gave her her title. She might be from another galaxy, or even this one, but it's a long shot. I daresay I'd put my money on her **not** being a princess of a planet."  
"Really?" Ami sat in silence for a tense moment, "this is odd..."  
"So you see? Now, this could all be wrong, and I don't want you to come to a conclusion before I'm completely certain, but I have a really, really bad feeling about this. I think Renée could even be just a very good actor and is the insider of an operation. She could easily get her powers from a higher source."   
"What about us? How'd she know how to transform into our uniforms?"   
"She could have studied us. If you had noticed, her uniform wasn't exactly the same as ours."   
"How about the cat features?"   
"I believe that might be her true form. I know your asking these questions because you don't want to believe it, and I rather not, either. But just keep your mind open, ok? All possibilities should be tried if it means life is at stake. I've been racking my brain since I saw her, and even though my memory of the Moon is weak, I am pretty certain she's not from it. I do sense unusual activity, but I can't tell from where. The only sure source of negative energy I'm positive of is a small wave from Renée."   
Ami pushed the chair back further, sighing. It was too bad; Renée was quite nice to her on Saturday. She just couldn't see how someone so nice could even possibly be evil. But her experience told her to trust Luna.   
"Ok, Luna, it's too bad you are making me even consider this, but I will. I'll keep my eyes peeled for anything suspicious."   
"Thank you for listening, Ami, and hopefully, this will all be proven untrue. Hopefully, I'll be wrong." 

Rei sat in front of the fire, concentrating. She had been sitting there for a while, trying to get any information she could. She couldn't sense any evil vibes at the moment, or the presence of monsters anywhere. But when she thought about people…  
Her new guest, Renée, there was something wrong about her. However, Rei couldn't pinpoint it; at least her instincts the first time she met her were correct.   
Rei's instincts had told her something was bad about the girl, yes, but it had been very weak, and Renée had so far proved herself to be innocent. She had even helped destroy the enemy that had attacked them on Friday, instead of running off like most would.   
Rei was happy with her decision to let Renée stay. If there had been something truly evil about her, her grandfather would have sensed it first and sent Renée on her way.   
Renée had done nothing wrong since she had arrived; maybe the bad feeling was connected to something in her past.   
Rei decided to trust her for now. She had given up on being suspicious. Besides, Renée had been kind to her the first time they met…  
Suddenly a vision shot through her mind. The fire roared up before her. Then she saw it; a monster that was in town. It was wreaking havoc on more civilians. Rei slammed her palm against the floor and jumped up. "Renée! RENÉE!" Rei shouted. Renée peaked from her room.   
"Were you sleeping again?!"   
"Ehe, yeah, sorry-"  
Rei didn't let her finish. "We've got to go to town. Grab your stuff…"  
"OH! You mean the-"  
"Yes, yes - Grandpa! I have to go help Usagi with homework; Renée's coming with me. We'll be back soon!"   
With that, Rei grabbed Renée's hand and pulled her out the door. 

Rei stopped in an alley, pressing her back against the brick wall. She looked around the corner; spotting the monster terrorizing people outside the quiet café she had her back pressed against.   
"Hurry and transform! Mars Star Power, Make-up!"   
After transforming in a brilliant flash of red light, Rei peeked her head around the corner again, keeping an eye on the monster as Renée transformed.   
Instead of transforming, Renée poked her own head over Rei's to see the monster. For some reason, it looked much more intimidating then the last one. Maybe because she was facing this creature face to face…  
"What are you waiting for? Hurry and transform!"   
The creature threw its ball again at more people. They scattered like bugs as the ball crashed through a pane of glass. This monster was much like the last, a tracksuit with matching sweatbands made her look like a model from a Nike commercial to Renée. The one big difference between her and the last monster was her bright yellow skin. However, Renée cared only about one item she had: this monster had another one of those balls, Renée thought with great panic. She shook her head.   
"I can't do this. I am not the type with powers!"   
"Oh suck it up and transform," Rei groaned. Renee sighed and looked at the crest in her palms.   
"Fine fine, but if I die, I'm sending something to avenge my death on you! Phoenix Power, Make-up!"   
Again the odd flash of light and cold metal surrounded Renée before leaving just as quickly. She now held a staff in her hand where her crest had been.   
Knowing her friend was now well prepared, Rei jumped out and announced herself to the monster.   
"Hey, sports geek!" the monster turned towards Rei, surprised. "Yeah, you, drop that ball and pick on someone your own size!"   
The monster was quite short compared to Renée and Rei.   
"Like a monkey!" Rei smirked.   
"I am the pretty suited sailor soldier, Sailor Mars! In the name of love and passion, I will defeat you, in high heels!"   
Renée just peeked her head around the corner again, slightly dazed. The first time she had transformed and fought felt more like a dream. This was frighteningly real.   
"Rei- I mean, Sailor Mars, I don't have any fancy speech, and I don't have any powers, so I'll just stand back here as backup ok? I'll be plan b." Renée announced as she turned back around the corner and slid down the wall, her back pressed up against it. Rei rolled her eyes as she turned her head to face the alley, hand on her hip. Why was Renée being so chicken?!   
Suddenly the monster came screaming at Rei, her leg extended. Rei ducked down and rolled out of the way. When the monster got up, she threw her ball directly at Rei, forcing her to jump out of the way again. The monster just wouldn't let her rest.   
Renée heard the commotion from her hiding spot and slowly turned the corner.   
"HEY!" Renée yelled at the monster. The monster turned its head towards her, giving Rei a chance to attack.   
"Mars Fire Soul!"   
A pillar of fire shot from Rei's hands and the monster was thrown into a lamppost by the street, denting it. But to Renée's surprise, it easily got up. Rei wasn't surprised at all.   
"Oh boy…" Renée gripped her staff tighter.   
"This one is tougher than the last?"   
"Most likely," Rei replied in monotone. She had started powering up her next attack before the monster even got up.   
"Mars Burning Mandela!" The rings of fire bombarded the monster, but the rebound didn't work as well as the first shot. The monster dodged a few, jumped high into the air, and landed even closer to Rei and Renée.   
"You silly girls have as much a chance at beating us as you do getting a date in those outfits! The messenger of fire through electricity is gonna wipe the board clean of at least two Sailor Soldiers today! Master better be watching me succeed. Watch me, master, I will win for you!"   
The monster faced the sky, throwing her fists in the air, laughing. Renée just looked over at Rei oddly, one eyebrow arched high.   
"Attack again."   
"Sounds good to me, Mars Fire Soul!"   
But the fire swirled around and about the monster before it disappeared, not even brushing the creature. It stopped laughing, returning to normal as it faced them. Growling like a wild animal, it whipped its arms around as if powering up to retaliate.   
"No matter what you try, the messenger of fire will never stop attacking!"   
"Isn't that what the last one said, and isn't it dead?" Renée whispered to Rei.   
"Heat from below, come forth!" the monster bumped her ball into the air, letting it land in her hands softly. She stood there afterwards, a smug look spread over her face.   
"Umm, yeah sure, Re- Sailor Mars, why don't you call Usagi on down? We could make this a lot faster-"  
Rei's mind was else where, her eyes scanning the area with worry. The monsters chant seemed to do nothing, and that scared Rei even more than an attack.   
The monster shouted, and bounced her ball against the ground. A shockwave of electricity went through the ground and hit them both, sending them to their knees.   
The monster laughed and continued to bounce her ball; giggling with each time the two soldiers were shocked.   
The electricity seemed to ripple in circles through the surface of the earth from where the ball hit the ground. Everything but where the monster stood shook with each bounce.   
"This is getting boring," the monster yawned, as if it were an old game to a child.   
"I'll just kill you now. That means I can search more later."   
She slammed the ball into the ground, in the same fashion the previous monster had done to Minako a few days back. This sent a massive shockwave through the earth, sending Rei and Renée flying. They both hit the brick wall behind them, falling to the ground motionless among the café's now broken chairs and tables.   
"Oh, too easy! I was right: Fire is the best type! You hear that master? Fire has succeeded!"   
She threw her fist into the air in triumph. 

"Mars…" Renée groaned.   
Rei pushed her face from the ground very slowly. Once her top torso was off the ground, she didn't move. Luckily she hadn't hit her head against the wall, but her back had paid for it. Even though her uniform wasn't torn, her back felt raw and was stinging. "Mars… you ok?" Renée asked, not moving a muscle.   
"I'm sitting up aren't I?" she spat out in frustration. She was sick and tired by being pushed around by these sport fanatics.   
"Then attack the monster now… it can't be that hard a target when it's dancing around.   
The monster was still doing its victory dance, swinging around the lamppost.   
"I… I can't. I'm too drained. Ugh." Rei's head fell with disappointment.   
Renée hadn't moved herself, worried the monster would attack again. She would have moved then, but she had no powers that she knew of. She felt ashamed of her status.   
I don't get it, she thought sadly, why don't I have powers? She felt bad for having Rei to do all the work in this fight. Why was she a soldier if she was useless? 

The monster danced around, as a voice in her head praised her.   
'You have done well,' said the voice.   
"Thank you master! Look what I did master! I defeated two soldiers for you!"   
'You have done well, now search for the key.'   
"Thank you master! I've done very well!"   
'Search for the key…' the voice sounded like a whisper on the wind, barely audible.   
"I'll find the key for you, too, master!" 

While Renée lay on the ground, now starring into the crystal of her staff, she cursed it for not granting her powers. All it was good for was whacking people over the head, she thought, and that's a useful piece of garbage with enemies like that!   
Slowly, and ever so faintly, the crystal started to shine red from deep within its core. It eventually became stronger, emitting it's own light, until it sent a faint, eerie glow over her face.   
"The monster, it's getting away!" Rei quickly got up to her feet, but hunched over when pain shot through her back.   
"My staff!" Renée scrambled to her feet, "Rei look!"   
"Sailor Mars, call me Sailor Mars," Rei griped as she turned to face Renée, supporting her back with her arms. Her attitude changed as soon as she witnessed it for her self. "Hey, that's probably your own powers! Go on, attack!"   
"But how?"   
A voice, the same voice that had whispered from the sky to her on Friday, quietly echoed through her mind again. It was so quiet, but so clear, every word lingered in her mind.   
"You are the defence, do what you must do, to help our soldiers protect our princess. Fight with them when you must, equip them when you must!"   
Again, a phrase just seemed to fall upon Renée from mid air. She swung her staff to her front, the crystal pointing outward as she held it firmly with both hands. The dagger end was dangerously close to her abdomen, but she didn't seem to care. With anger and determination, she let the staff go with her left hand, holding it only in her right as she turned on the spot. She did not notice the red, thin line of light on the ground that followed the crystal to form a perfect circle.   
Renée could feel her energy drain from her, pooling into this one attack. All the sounds of the world seemed to be blocked out, as well as every object. She did not notice Sailor Mars go after the monster. She did not notice the cars squealing to a stop before the unnatural creature.   
She could only hear her heartbeat, as her entire body seemed to zone into one target - Sailor Mars.   
The red circle on the ground shot up into a cylinder of translucent, red light around her that closed in on Renée. A sphere of fire-like substance appeared in her hand as soon as the light had disappeared. She swung her arm back and threw the fiery energy right at her target. 

To Sailor Mars, these events couldn't have been happening any faster.   
"Mars Singeing Scratch!" echoed in her ears as she crossed her arms in a small attempt to block the attack. 

Ami witnessed the crime and shot out her own attack in fury.   
"Mercury Shine Aqua Illusion!"   
A wave of water sent Renée flying again into another innocent lamppost. A sickening thud was heard when her arm ricocheted off the metal. 

Mars, on the other hand, was powered up with the wall of fire-like light that had connected with her. She stood there, amidst the waves of flames tickling her limbs as she collected them within herself. She smiled at the strange sensation of power as she watched the monster disappear over the hill on the road. Energized again, her wounded back seemed to disappear as she ran up the hill. It was easy to catch up to the skipping target. Rei jumped into the air while the monster reached the bottom on the other side of the hill. She was almost over top of the monster while screaming her attack.   
"MARS FIRE SOUL!"   
Fire exploded in all directions as it went right through the monster and hit the ground. Rei landed in the middle of where it had hit the street, the monster literally vaporized from existence. Mars allowed herself to fall to her knees. 

In a room with metal walls, a man's figure was slumped over a glass ball, held from the ground by a metal post splitting into three claws. He sighed heavily as his head fell in disgust. Disgust for his creature, disgust for its failure, and disgust for his own failure.   
The green smoke in the glass ball faded to black just before the man pounded his fist against it. He had lost two semi-powerful beings of his diminishing army through these girls. He could not let this continue for much longer. 


	3. Part 3

Renée slowly opened her heavy eyelids, a dizziness clouding her mind that worsened with the slightest movement of her head. Slowly, careful of the feeling that threatened nausea, Renée moved to sit up, absentmindedly putting her weight on her right arm.

Instantly the feeling of dizziness gave way to a searing pain that seemed to shoot through the middle of her arm. Giving a cry that was interrupted by a gasp, her left arm came up quickly to cradle the one that had backed off the bed in a fierce jolt. _What the HELL_, she thought in frustration with clenched teeth, trying to bear the pain. Starring down at the limb now clutched to her chest, she discovered her right forearm was in a thick cast, from thumb to elbow. Tempting fate, she wiggled her fingers as a test, only to have the same feeling in a lesser form throb through her arm. At last, defeated, she let it rest beside her, changing her attention to where she actually was. 

Glancing around the completely sterile hospital room, she sighed in depressed confirmation. Gently massaging her temple, as if to help the dizziness fade, she remembered waking up earlier, and even in a haze of drowsiness and pain realizing she was in a hospital.  At the time, however, she had been in too much pain and far too mentally drained to care very much either way. Looking back now, René realized she had to have been under the influence of some sort of sedative. 

With that set aside, new ideas and worries flooded her brain. She felt nervous, uptight and abandoned, the silent hospital playing on her negative thoughts and worsening her state. No one had stayed with her, or even woke her up to tell her what was going on, and now she was right back where she started. Left to fend for her self in a foreign country, but this time starting off in a barren white prison.

Turning her attention to the clock on the wall, Renée discovered with the sense of shock that it was actually early morning, the window of the room brightening as if on cue with soft hues of gold and blue. Renée slipped out of the white sheets and went over to the window gracefully, not making a sound. Leaning her good arm on the sill, she pressed her face against the screen that separated her from the world. Having her arm busted at this time was one of the worst things that could have happened to her; especially with this new war she seemed to have a part in.

Thinking back, the memory of being attacked by a powerful wave of water came back to her quickly. However, its origin had her stumped, even after the details had slowly wandered back to her. Where could it have come from? Had it been one of the Sailor Soldiers? Renée's heart sank at the suggestion that seemed to be gaining more probability every second. _If they attacked me_, Renée thought to her self, _they must not trust me_. Her eyes now focused on the screen instead of the world outside. _I'm an idiot for thinking I would fit right in, I'm not like them… from the beginning I've been different. And now with being a Sailor Soldier… I'm a creature when I change for God's sake!_

No matter what she did or tried, there was always that thin screen… 

"Oh, you're awake!" said a cheery voice, interrupting Renée's self pity. Renée turned around, facing the nurse_. How could she be so happy in a place like this_, thought Renée.

"Hello…" Renée said back quietly. The nurse walked towards her.

"I'm surprised you're up!" she stated, as if it were the most unusual thing in the world.

"Yeah, so am I," Renée said with honest astonishment as her eyes became unfocused, as if she were trying to remember exactly why she had gotten up.

"Well," the nurse continued on with her sunny disposition, "I wouldn't blame you; you've been out since late last evening! The nurse from last night told me all about you."

The nurse finally took a pause from her rambling, out of things to say. At last, with this break, she noticed Renée's set jaw that seemed to tell her not everything was right. Given this opportunity, she started right back up again.

"Now, don't be upset," she stated simply, "your friends were very worried about you. Thought you had a concussion at first! They finally left when they figured you weren't waking up. But it turns out just your arm was broken."

As if a broken arm were nothing, Renée sneered to herself, but she kept her face neutral.

"Do you have any parents or guardians we can call to pick you up?"

Renée stiffly shook her head, averting her eyes to the floor. Something tugged at her heart when the nurse said this, and the last thing she wanted to do was show to weakness.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the nurse looked as if she wanted to take what she said back. Renée looked up, forcing a smile.

"Nah, it's ok! I can just wait until my friends come and get me! It can't be that long."

The nurse nodded, satisfied.

"Well, alright, you still could use a little more rest in my opinion anyway. Now go back to bed."

Renée followed the order, a little uncomfortable to be told what to do. Usually she'd mouth off for something like that, but Renée realized the nurse was only trying to do her job and keep her from further harm.

"Wait! Before you leave," Renée caught the nurse before she closed the door, "My arm is going to heal completely, right?" 

The nurse turned towards her again, a sweet smile on her face with her hands clasped before her. "Of course, dear! It was what we call a clean break, just one straight line," she demonstrated on her own arm, "so there should be no complications at all. You'll be writing just as good as new in no time!"

Renée took a deep breath and released it in relief. She was worried about her arm, but hadn't wanted to show it. Looking down at it, she realized it was the only thing of herself she really needed to depend on. Just as the nurse started to leave again, Renée piped up with another question.

"So it'll be fine, right?"

"Right."

"Then, how long will it take for it to be fine again?"

"Oh, it's a big bone, so more or less, 6 months."

The usual silence that reigned in the 3rd hall of the right hospital wing was shattered by one high-pitched, outraged cry. 

"6 MONTHS?!?!"

A tall, dark and menacing man paced up and down in front of his two soldiers, jaw locked and hands wringing behind his back. He was completely tensed up, as if he were just about to release a sudden blow with enough force to kill upon some helpless victim. He was the type of person you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, or even look at wrong for fear of your life. His pacing continued like a panther around two fiery toned soldiers, one who was fidgeting excessively while the other stood as still as prey trying to avoid the sight of a hunter. His head bowed in pensive thought, he truly felt like he and everything around him was falling apart. How could he allow himself to fail like this for his Queen? His precious Queen…

Denying all he felt on the inside, he snapped his head up to face the two, short woman-like monsters before him. A nasty scowl covered his face.

"I am disgusted by you two," his booming voice filled with venom seeped through his clenched teeth, "Windfish, Thunderbird, you both promised me you could take care of this. But what do you do? You **both** fail!"

Thunderbird stepped forward slightly. "I'm sorry, master, but-"

"Shut up! You didn't even find a person who could possibly carry the key. I didn't breathe **life** into you to fail!!"

He sighed, rubbing his forehead for a moment. He finally continued in a lower tone.

"How can I prove our worthiness to our Queen when you can't even carry out a simple task as killing one of those, _soldiers_," he said the word with certain disgust.

"The Sailor Soldiers, the ones who ruined my Queen's life."

"We are truly, deeply disgusted by our own actions, Master," said Windfish with excess drama.

"The clones you sent in our place are incompetent. Only having the ability to control them telepathically is no where near as efficient as being there ourselves… "

"Yeah," said Thunderbird smugly, "the original would be so much better." 

Thunderbird's tone of confidence was too inappropriate for the time being, and it set the man into a stage of rage.

"_How dare you even suggest such a thing to me with your current record!!_ If both of you don't disappear from my sight within **seconds** of the end of this **sentence**, something will wind up **BURRIED ALIVE!!**"

Without questioning their Master's rare display of mercy, Thunderbird and Windfish fled from his sight.

Certain that the incompetent minions had gone, the man called out for someone with his demanding voice.

"Shadowolf!"

A dark girl, much like the other two though slightly taller stepped from the shadows. Instead of having brightly toned eyes and skin, like the orange and yellow of Thunderbird and Windfish, her flesh was of a deep, cold purple.

"Yes, master," she said obediently.

"I want you to send a clone to kill the Sailor Soldiers. Don't even think about the key, just _kill_ them," his voice was a lower volume than usual, but the desperate tone he spoke in showed the importance of the mission, especially the way he stressed the word kill. She nodded in understanding. 

"Their death is assured."

Rei squinted as she stepped into the extremely bright sunlight, trying to guard her eyes with her free hand. When she could at last let her eyes open the tiniest bit, she was surprised to see Mamoru's red car waiting for her at the bottom of the steps of her school again, just like the day before. Once her eyes had adjusted a bit better to the light, she finally walked towards it, picking out the distinctive form of her princess as she neared the car.

"Hey, Rei-chan!" said Usagi, leaning over Mamoru to stick her head out the window, "come with us to get Renée-chan!"

"You didn't have to pick me up, I was on my way there anyway. I feel kind of guilty for leaving her all alone. Even after yesterday…" Rei trailed off, knowing Usagi knew very well about the events of the previous day. Although it had seemed like Renée's attack on Rei intended to kill her, Rei knew somehow that Renée never wanted to hurt her. It was a strong, gut feeling that Rei had to stand by, and couldn't ignore. However, Ami hadn't seen it that way, witnessing it herself, and she, like Luna, had concluded that Renée was trouble. They were to have a meeting today, in an attempt to figure this whole thing out, but with two of the most intelligent people of their team against Renée, Rei was worried that this trial would quickly become an execution.

Usagi smiled. "I believe you, Rei-chan, I don't think Renée-chan attacked you on purpose. She's new at this, right? I think Ami and Luna are wrong."

Rei nodded as she slid into the back seat of the car. "It was on purpose, but it just didn't hurt me, and I doubt it ever could. I wish Luna and Ami would see that!"

Buckling herself in, Rei couldn't resist slipping in a last comment. 

"You guys are going to make me lazy by driving me all over the place, like someone we know…" Rei smiled.

"Hey! I told you I was on your side," Usagi turned around on the seat and glared at Rei. "Why pick on me?!"

Rei ignored that completely. "So you are going to help me defend Renée today at the meeting?"

Usagi nodded vigorously, turning around and putting her seatbelt on. Mamoru looked over to her.

"What is this all about anyway?"

"Only me, Rei-chan, Ami-chan and Luna know. We'll tell you if you come!" Usagi clamped onto his arm.

"Usa, I need to drive. Can you get off?"

White walls. White ceiling. White floor. White sheets. White – and grey, tables. The only thing in the entire room that broke the pattern was one painting, an abstract print in grey, white and faded pink_. As if that's supposed to help_, Renée thought with a snort.

Renée lay on her back, staring at the ceiling. She felt like she was going to scream! It was 3:30 in the afternoon, and she had literally been in that room all day. She tried looking out the window, but she had seen all she could see. She lay there, wide eyed, wondering when her brain would explode.

Lifting her arm, she looked at the cast that enveloped her right arm.

"As soon as I get a hold of markers, you're going down," she muttered the threat.

"Hello, Renée-chan!" shouted Usagi.

Giving a startled cry, Renée jerked up in the bed, her nerves so startled she didn't give a single thought to which arm she had quickly propped herself up with. 

"GAHOWWWWW!" Renée shrieked, whipping her arm off the bed so fast she had to catch herself from falling over with her left arm. The only problem with her quick reaction was that there was no bed left under her, and she flopped head first onto the floor.

"Oh my GOD! Renée-chan, are you alright?!" Usagi ran to her side with honest concern. Rei followed Usagi's lead, saying nothing, but worried none the less.

Renée's hearty laughter relieved the two girls nerves moments after.

"You really had me going there for a second, Usagi. Try to be a little less loud when you make an entrance in a hospital," Renée glanced around the stark room as Usagi helped her up, "or whatever type of HELL this place is."

"I'm so sorry Renée-chan!" Usagi apologized, completely regretful for her actions. Seeing how serious Usagi was, Renée just laughed again.

 "It's about time I was rescued!" Renée changed the subject while shaking her fist jokingly.

"Sorry about leaving you like that, Renée, but we really had no choice. We were worried something more serious had happened to you, like a concussion. Once we found out it was just a broken arm, though, well we had to leave. It was a school night and some of us had homework!" Rei said, trying to compensate for her guilt-causing actions by subtly bringing up the fact that Renée wasn't currently even going to school.

Renée almost did a double take, turning to Rei when she picked up on the backlash.

"Geeze, Rei, I wasn't being serious. Calm down! No need to be all defensive!" Renée shrugged, a little unsettled seeing how she had struck a nerve. Rei just crossed her arms.

Once again, all seriousness aside, Renée leaned over to Usagi's ear, somewhat whispering a message she intended to be loud enough for Rei to hear.

"Remind me to never to do that fist-shaking-thing again," she hoarsly told Usagi, causing the little blonde to laugh.

"Oh, don't worry about Rei!" she giggled.

"Well, speaking about wonderful me again," Renée stated after Usagi had finished, "would one of you mind telling me how the hell I got myself landed in a hospital?"

Rei and Usagi looked at each other, then at Renée.

"Umm, we aren't sure," lied Rei, uncrossing her arms to show sympathy once again, "but Ami did look into it. We think the monster had a friend somewhere, which would explain it's weird ranting… "

"Right," said Usagi, "but you're ok, which is all that really matters."

Renée suppressed a chuckle, biting her lip to help.

"What?" Usagi said, "what's so funny?"

"I don't know, that just sounded so, so… soppy."

The fury that flashed through Rei's eyes caused Renée to shrink back onto the bed.

"What."

"We were honestly worried about you!" Rei growled, remembering the couple of hours spent in the waiting room. "Why is that funny!?"

Renée looked down. "Just seems… weird. I've hardly known you guys for a couple of weeks, why waste your time?"

Rei just shook her head, while Usagi smiled.

"Silly, because we're your friend!" Usagi sat on the edge of the hospital bed, next to Renée.

Feeling put on the spot with such a generous response, Renée remained unusually silent, just shrugging a response. She couldn't help but smile slightly, thought.

"I think it's time we blow this popsicle stand!" Renée exclaimed while jumping off the bed again. After all the waiting she had been doing that day, she couldn't sit still for very long.

"So," Rei asked in a tone that gave away that she was sincerely concerned, "what did the doctor say about your arm?"

Renée looked away, biting her lip, mumbling the answer.

"What did you say?" asked Usagi.

"Six crappy months!" Renée sobbed, her head drooping into her hands "and I'm supposed to come in for checkups! But they say it'll be as good as new. It's not fair! Why me!"

Usagi nodded as she patted Renée on the back. "C'mon, Mamoru is signing you out. Lets go wait for him at the front."

Renée went cold. "Mamoru's here?" she said in a much lower tone, her eyes slanting slightly. "Hun…" 

"Yup!" Usagi chimed in brightly, not noticing Renée's ice as slipped off the bed, heading for the door. Rei just sighed, having more than enough of her fill of Usagi's affection for Mamoru that day.

"Let's leave this hell hole," Renée agreed, picking up again when she talked to Usagi.

On their way out, Renée clumsily gave a good whack to her injured arm as it connected with the doorway. After a few choice curses, Renée remembered the white demon that was the cast.

"Hey Rei, you got any markers?"

Makoto leaned up against one of the wooden support posts of the temple. Wearing a green tank top and matching brown jeans, she readjusted her shirt so the tag stopped scratching her back. Ami sat by her on the temple steps, Luna perched on her lap while she finished the last pages of a book. 

"Ami-chan, how can you read so quickly?" Makoto asked in sheer amazement.

"Practice," Ami answered skilfully, without missing a word on the page she prepared to turn, "I find I read even more quickly if I find the book interesting."

"Oh," Makoto stated, starring back into space. "So, is that book interesting?"

"Oh yes!" Ami added with excitement in her voice, proving her interest in the words that lay before her. 

"Really? Looks pretty heavy… what's it on?"

"The genetic basis of development, it's more or less centralized on the evolution of the homeobox gene," Ami stated casually.

Makoto could only arch her eyebrows as a response, just as she spotted Minako running up the steps with Artemis.

"Helloooo Makoto-chan! Hey Ami-chan!" she said with glee, "so, wasn't there a meeting today? Where's the rest of the gang?"

Luna bounded off Ami's lap to Minako and Artemis. "I told Usagi to come right after school, and Rei should have been here waiting. I don't know what's keeping them."

Just then the sound of a car came up from the bottom of the hill. Shortly there after, Rei, Mamoru and Usagi walked up the steps.

"Hello hello hello," said Usagi.

"Where were you three?" Luna demanded.

"The hospital, why?" Usagi bent down to the cat.

"We had a meeting today!" Luna scolded.

"Calm down, Luna, we were just meeting Renée," Rei explained. 

Luna's eyes became softer, as she sighed with disappointment at the mention of Renée. She knew that the point about Renée she wanted to argue was not going to go smoothly. "I guess I may as well explain to everyone who hasn't heard yet," explained Luna, "this is why I called this meeting." Her head lowered as she prepared to state her view. She felt like the bearer of bad news, which was not quite true, since her theory was not fact at that time. Luna decided that there was nothing she could do to soften her blow, their reactions wouldn't be pretty no matter what, and she'd may as well drop it all on them right there.

"Renée could very well be the enemy."

Everyone watched Luna with great intensity now, a stunned silence coming over them as everything became still. The ones that knew about the accusation before Luna had announced it weren't stunned with the statement, but were paralysed none the less. Luna continued carefully.

"I had a theory before, and I contemplated over it for some time. Unfortunately, now, however, we have proof that this theory might be true. Just yesterday, Renée attacked Rei while in a battle against another monster. You all heard about the battle itself, I'm sure, and how Renée wound up at the hospital. What you don't know is that the reason Renée is in a hospital is because she was injured when Ami attacked her in retaliation, trying to prevent her from doing further damage. It is extremely lucky that Rei wasn't hurt."

"Oh, come off it!" Rei said while throwing her arms out, "I wasn't hurt because that wasn't an attack! It was almost like, a power-up, she helped me!"

"That's not what it looked like," said Ami. "If you weren't the Soldier of Fire, she would have seriously hurt you."

"Ami is right," said Luna. "You were fortunate that she used a fire attack."

"No, I don't think that attack could hurt anyone! Fire would have hurt anything it hit, even a Soldier of Fire."

"How could you know? You've been struck with a fire attack lately?!" Luna barked back.

"Calm DOWN, Luna! I know that she knew I was the Soldier of Fire, I had used my attacks right before her! Wouldn't she use something that conflicted my powers?!"

"Maybe she doesn't have any other attacks!"

"Maybe she was trying to help me! She said Mars in her attack!"

"Because she stole YOUR POWERS!"

Everyone else had been silent during the argument. Rei just crossed her arms, bending back defensively.

"I would be nearly dead if that was intended to kill. Why does no one else believe me?"

"I believe you…" Usagi said meekly.

A moment of silence settled in, giving everyone time to think.

"Why are you defending her, Rei?" Minako finally brought up.

"Because I've lived with her-"

"For two weeks," Luna broke in.

"Damn it, Luna, my grandfather or I would have sensed her evil and powers by now." 

"You haven't sensed every enemy," Luna sourly spit out.

"Wait a minute Luna, before you literally send a girl to her death, how can you be so sure she's the enemy?" Artemis said calmly.

Luna cautiously turned to Artemis, already regretful of her behaviour during the argument. 

"I do have my reasons. Primarily, there's the thought that she might not be a Sailor Soldier, to me she seems like a fraud. She was not a princess of any planet I can recall of this solar system, and if she were of a different system or even galaxy, I would expect either Artemis or I to noticed her coming to earth. Then there's her different uniform, especially those cat features she gains after transforming. If she were from Mau, it'd make perfect sense, but she isn't."

"What's Mau?" asked Minako.

"I'll tell you that story another day…" Artemis trailed off. Luna continued.

"Second, there's the proof she's willing to attack us."

"You don't know that," Rei said.

"Please, let me finish," Luna said desperately, "I'm only being so persistent because I don't want to see any of you hurt! She has me very worried about all of you!

"Next to the idea that she could be a fraud, and that she might have attacked Rei with an intent to kill, there's the fact that the enemy did appear about the same time she did."

"Pure coincidence," Rei snorted.

"She might have appeared just before the monsters did so she could become the insider for a higher power; she could find out everything, from all the weaknesses of our team, to what we eat for breakfast. Choosing to live with you is just another coincidence, right?"

Luna looked back at Rei accusingly, wanting her to at least have an open mind about the discussion, but Rei held her position like the strong, stubborn soldier she was. Luna decided to add her last point just at that moment.

"Besides, Rei herself doubted she could be trusted."

Luna pulled the last straw, and Rei wasn't going to remain quiet any longer.

"Luna I said it was a faint feeling. It wasn't powerful at all. That could be caused by thousands of things, depending on the person. A bad day could have been the cause of those bad vibes, which are days Renée seems to have many of!"

"The vibrations wouldn't need to be powerful," explained Luna, "if she were possessed. One creature that could easily do so is a demon. One slip up in her life with evil, and she'd be a prone target for any one of those creatures."

"I hate to admit it," said Artemis, "but Luna's right. There is enough evidence against Renée for us to be at least a bit worried. And the demon thing is very possible now, I was almost certain I sensed one the other day."

"What do you mean, Artemis?" asked Makoto.

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain…" Artemis trailed off as hercocked his head to the side.

"May as well start from the beginning," Luna prompted him, and Artemis nodded in agreement.

"The universe is basically bare, free of feelings; sometimes just downright evil," Artemis explained. "On the rare occasion, a living thing is created from the particles of the universe. We know these things as demons. There are small, powerless ones on earth that could have been caught within the planet during it's making. Some have been destroyed, some seek refuge in the middle of the earth, and some are probably wreaking havoc in the form of people as we speak. You know, born killers, thieves, rapists, and maybe even business tyrants."

"Like Bill Gates!" piped up Usagi.

"Umm, no, not exactly what I meant…" Artemis trailed off, trying not to laugh.

"What he means is shady business, like prostitution or drugs, like the mob," Luna continued for him. "These things feed off of all types of evil, seducing people to create them for their own use."

Artemis nodded, forcing down the laugh. "But sometimes, huge, powerful demons were created. You've encountered them before; Queen Metalia was a demon, although she was an extremely rare case due to the amount of power she had. 

These monstrous demons would consume entire worlds to survive, feeding off the horror they first created. They can manipulate the threads of grief, greed, loathing and blood thirst that are woven throughout our world and its people, making the world's children their minions and creating a tapestry of evil and horror.

"Renée could easily be such a minion. If there is such a demon at hand here, the powers it had conveyed to Renée could effortlessly be hidden in plain sight, which is why Rei might not be able to sense their power.

"When I said I thought I sensed a demon recently, I meant I caught a sensation of one while walking with Minako. It was unusually strong, but I assumed it was just someone I had walked by automatically. It didn't seem like something to worry about at the time, but now that I think about it… it's a possibility, is all I'll say."

Luna nodded in satisfaction; glad someone had finally seen her point.

"The moon was completely safe from such evil beings, like the demons, since the Silver Crystal was in full power with wise and powerful Queen Serenity at the helm. But with a half awakened queen and an unpredictable crystal… the earth is very vulnerable against a powerful demon."

"This is bad news, guys," Makoto agreed. "But if Renée's in a demon's grasp, we've got to free her."

"You believe this?" Rei shouted. "You really think she is behind all this?"

"Hey, it's possible Rei!" Makoto said, "It would all fit."

"Unless she's a minion created by a powerful demon, like the type you were describing, Luna," Ami said softly, clearly uncomfortable with bringing the idea up. Luna sighed once more.

"That's where I thought her cat features were derived. Demons can not create pure humans without expending vast amounts of energy; humans are complicated creatures. But I doubt Renée is a minion. It pains me to think she could be that evil..." Luna trailed off, obviously distressed.

"I can't believe none of you are willing to trust her!" Rei exclaimed with passion. "After all we've been through as Sailor Soldiers, you're not able to have any faith in her?"  
"She's a stranger to us! And to you too!" Minako shouted. "Rei, I think you might be kidding yourself. You can't pick up on every enemy."

"Deep down," Rei shot back, "I think you all know that I'm right. I trust my instincts-"

Rei suddenly stopped, her eyes going wide. She felt like something was caught in her chest, a burning signal that demanded her attention. She knew what it meant, and soon after her sixth sense searched for the cause as the pain dissolved. At last an image flashed through her mind.

"Another monster!" she finally choked out desperately, "South of here!"

On the way back from the hospital, Rei had concluded that she didn't own any decent markers, although it was another lie. It was the perfect excuse to leave Renée behind somewhere, since the whole meeting they were about to have was all about her. Forcing Mamoru to donate to the cause, Usagi pointed out her favourite hobby store (that held only the finest stuffed animals) and handed over the money before kicking her out of the car. Now browsing up and down the aisles for the biggest pack of markers with the most variety of colours, Renée had finally come down to two selections. Glancing between to the two, Renée was utterly puzzled. She was completely torn between the two. It wasn't the colours, or the number of markers. It was the price. Renée couldn't read Japanese, so she couldn't figure which was the cheaper of the two. She finally took the one with the brightest packaging, turned around, and went back to the front of the store, where, to Renée's left the clerk sat behind a counter reading a magazine.

"Excuse me, but could you tell me how much this costs?"

Renée placed the package carefully onto the counter with her left hand, respectively.

The clerk looked up, a bit confused to why she couldn't figure it out herself.

"Umm, of course, it's 1000 yen in total."

Renée pulled Mamoru's money out of her pocket, then stared down at the 6 100 yen coins in her hand. She stood there for a bit, her face twisted in thought while she figured it out.

"10 dollars!" she finally burst out, "10 freaking dollars for a pack of crappy markers?"

The clerk raised an inquisitive eyebrow, and leaned onto the counter, face to face with Renée. 

"Ok, ok," Renée matched her pose, "which pack of markers can I buy for 600 yen?"

The window at the front of the store shattered, sending shards of glittering glass raining all over the store front, the store clerk, and Renée. They screamed as they fell to the floor.

A dark creature gracefully stepped through the broken window, the crunching noise her shoes created stopping momentarily as she surveyed the area. All Renée could see were the monster's sneakers as she struggled to silently sit up against the sheet of metal that made up the end of one of the shelves.

The creature took one step, bending down to take hold of Renée's neck.

"Here, need a little help?"

The monster hauled Renée on to her feet, forcing her back hard against the shelf. Renée could feel the steel screws digging into her flesh as she choked, trying to breath.

"Tell me, girl, do you know the Sailor Soldiers?"

Renée didn't answer. The monster obviously knew this, and squeezed a little harder.

"You think if I killed someone, they'd finally show up? I mean, I've been destroying things all day, yet nothing!" She chuckled a bit, smiling. "At least I got my kick for the day," the monster let Renée go, her limp form making a loud gasping noise as it hit the ground. With a casual wave of one hand, her enchanted ball came to her hands from outside the store. With her back still turned to the clerk, she turned her head slowly to eye the woman behind the counter. She smiled as she saw how terrified the woman was; she was pinned against the wall like someone was holding her neck, cowering as far as she could into the corner. 

In one swift moment the monster turned and whipped the ball into the woman, nailing her hard enough in the abdomen to make her eyes even wider than they were before. The woman was already pinned to the corner, so the ball made both a sickening thud and a muffled snapping noise as it bounced back off her body, the wall giving it enough force to cause her ribs to break. The monster caught it just above her head without any effort, grinning with her work as she watched the woman slump slowly to the floor, unconscious.

"Damn, I don't think I killed her either," she contemplated as she tapped her foot against the clinking glass shards. "Where are those damned Soldiers when you need them?"

Leaving the store, the monster stood on the sidewalk, looking from side to side. _Where are those little girls_, she though angrily. They had killed two of her sister's clones in mere minutes, but they couldn't even find her own clone after hours?

Renée reached under her shirt, grabbing the black crest that gave her the power to transform. Although, into what exactly did she transform? _What in hell's name are you?_ Renée thought bitterly. The silver chain that she had slipped the crest onto jingled as the chain's original ornament slid down and hit the ebony stone circle in her hand. The silver dragon pendant that begged for her attention finally got some. Taking off the necklace, she gingerly held the shiny dragon sculpture in her hand, massaging the wing between her thumb and index finger. 

The simple pewter necklace had been a gift from a friend from a couple years back. Back then it was a meaningless thing, and money wise it was still worthless. However, now the simple symbol was the last familiar thing she had, and she smiled slightly at the memories it brought back. Closing her fist around it tightly, she recalled herself of her nearly forgotten friend, and realized how she'd disappoint him if she remained where she was any longer.

"Right. C'mon Lien, don't fail me now. Phoenix Power, make UP!"

Throwing her hand in the air, the crest now held tight in her hand with its chain and sister pendant dangling down her arm, she transformed in a flash of silvery light. The crest turned into her plain but ever-faithful staff. The necklace slipped off.

"Oh, don't want to lose that now," she said as she grabbed it off the ground and flipped it over her neck again, the necklace slipping under her uniform. The monster hadn't noticed her transform; now it was across the street, hassling a street sign in her frustration.

Now with the mask of Sailor Kitty, Renée allowed herself to lose it.

"HEY ASSHOLE!" She yelled at the top of her lungs in her native language, not giving a second thought to it as she let her rage go, "you wanted a Sailor Soldier? You've **fucking got it!!!**"

The monster turned with an unsettling smile. Her smile disappeared though, when she spotted Renée's cast over her glove.

"Oh great," she said sarcastically while whipping her hand to her hip, "they send me the broken one. Am I that disrespected as an opponent?"

Renée growled, lowering as if she was preparing to lunge. "Bring it on!" she challenged, while tossing the staff absentmindedly from her left hand to her right.

Automatically trying to prevent her staff from hitting the ground, she tried to curl her fingers around the staff, instead causing the opposite reaction as pain shot through her forearm. The staff flung from her hand as she instinctively brought her arm to her chest, the left hand clutching the right as the staff clattered to the ground with several clinks. She was right handed, and her right hand was completely useless.

"Wow, impressive," said the monster, clearly loving this.

Renée picked her staff up with her left hand, trying to recuperate by never letting her eyes unlock from those of her opponent. Renée tried to give her most deadly look to the creature.

"You think you're all that. Well, how 'bout the 'messenger of forest through shadow' put you in your place?"

Floating high into the air, she held her ball over her head, her palm flat. Moving her hand away, the ball remained, floating.

"Get your claws ready, kitty girl," she muttered before winding up. "Shadows of the heart come FORTH!"

Spiking the ball into the ground, a shadow in a wolf-like form instantly jumped back up from the ball's contact point, high into the air. It landed right in front of Renée, lunging for her throat. She, however, had been prepared, body tense and posed at the ready, for something strange to happen like the times before. Just as the shadow approached, she barely leapt to the right in time.

The shadow wolf was extremely fast, making her jump unstable and her crash landing unavoidable. She landed hard on her feet, causing her to fall to her knees. She winced slightly, feeling the tiny pebbles of the road dig into the skin of her knees.

However, the shadow wasn't done. Simply bounding off the wall that was previously behind Renée, it leaped right past her, so close that the whoosh of the air and dark tailwind it dragged behind itself disoriented Renée for a terrifying moment.

Hitting the pavement right behind Renée, it pounced off of it at an angel and stuck Renée directly in the middle of her back; the creature exploding as the last bit of strength it had was used up while sending Renée sprawling face first with a pained cry.

She lifted her face off of cement smeared with blood from her skinned cheek, her head high enough to glare directly into the eyes of the creature.

"Aww, too bad. And that was a tiny one! Want to see what I can really do?" The monster spiked her ball into the ground even harder, forcing Renée to roll out of the way of another shadow. It deflected off a street sign, heading straight for Renée's stomach.

But miraculously, she was able to whip her staff out just in time, hitting the shadow and sending it bouncing along it's merry way down the street. Renée was finally able to get up.

"Oh, this is ridiculous," sighed the monster. She spiked her ball into the ground twice, sending out two more shadows. Waving her hand, she caused the first one to change direction and turn back around. Pointing a finger at Renée, all three shadows were now taking the shape of complete wolves, homing in on Renée alone.

"This entire mission should be entrusted to me, Master. My clones have not failed where my sisters' have. **I** will not fail!"

An unheard voice spoke back to her.

"Of course, Master, you shall have the others, on my honour you will!"

With a swirl of black liquid, the monster was gone. Renée was left there, alone, dodging the shadow wolves helplessly without end. As soon as she landed from a jump, she had to take to the air again. At times she swung her staff in an attempt to keep the shadow wolves at bay. She had no attacks; even if she had, she'd have no time to use them. Her staff swing was sloppy with her left arm, and she could feel her strength giving out on her. All she could do was dodge skilfully - and pray.

Having been detected by Rei, the Sailor Soldiers were now pounded the pavement down deserted streets, dodging abandoned cars and unconscious people as they tried to track down the lasted monster that was threatening their city. Rei was leading the group, sensing her way blindly to the region the evil radiated from.

"It's just up ahead," she called back in reassurance, the running audibly affecting her breathing.

Finally they all came to a quaint little road that was being bombarded with shadow wolves.

Whatever the wolves hit or landed on was left cracked, cut through or smashed to bits. Poor Renée was in the middle of it all. The Soldiers arrived just in time to see Renée collapse.

"Moon Princess Halation!" Sailor Moon cried desperately, her sceptre appearing in her hand moments before she directed pure and radiant moonlight towards the monsters. The beam shot through two of the wolves simultaneously, their beings exploding from existence.

The last one started after Sailor Moon herself, picking a new target in honour of its friends. However, a well placed rose by Mamoru stopped the thing in its tracks, allowing Sailor Moon time to dispel of it as well.

Sailor Kitty finally got up, gripping her throbbing right arm while clutching her staff with the inside of her elbow.

"You don't know how happy I am to see you guys; I need one of those watch TV's, **now**."

"What happened?" asked Rei.

"Well, I was buying markers when one of those ball carrying freaks burst through the window. I think it was looking for you guys…"

Makoto glanced over to Minako. "You mean you were here when it appeared?" she asked.

"Umm, I think so… it might have been around earlier…." Renée wandered to the side of the street, eventually sitting down. Minako nodded to Makoto.

"Hey, Sailor Kitty, what did you mean it was looking for us?" asked Usagi.

"It means I'm looking for you," the monster said. Everyone turned back to see the purple woman-like creature floating in mid air, her arms and legs crossed.

"You're all dead! **Shadow from the heart**!!!" 

She violently spiked her ball into the center of the group, causing them to scatter in all directions. Shadow wolves followed them, each Soldier now preoccupied with a wolf of their own. The only Soldier not being bothered was Sailor Kitty.

Sailor Mercury easily dodged her monster by jumping and ducking near where Renée now stood, but it rebounded off the glass of a window, similar to when Renée had been attacked. Before it could wallop Ami in the back, Renée smashed it in the head with her staff.

"Thanks Sailor Kitty," Ami said quietly. She was a little afraid to be near her in a fight, what if she was the enemy? She could attack and not even be noticed.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Attack Mercury!" said Renée. Ami shook all doubt from her mind and nodded.

"Mercury Shabon Spray!" Ami sent a drenched, thick fog all over the area with a swing of her arms. The shadow wolves became a lot less furious and slowed down, some even stopping. The wolves could no longer find their targets!

The main monster, which now held her ball against her chest like a teddy bear, looked around nervously. She couldn't see many of the Sailor Soldiers, and that had her worried.

Tuxedo Mask quickly snapped his cane onto the head of the wolf that was bothering him, dispelling it in a loud whoosh. The monster had a right to be worried: Tuxedo Mask jumped up from where he was and whipped her in the neck with his cane as soon as the wolf was gone.

Soon the fog began to clear, as each Soldier dealt with the death of their wolf. Sailor Venus managed a well-placed smack of her chain right between the wolf's eyes to kill the one threatening her, while Sailor Jupiter aimed a thunderbolt at her target as she jumped over her attacking wolf. Sailor Mars finally killed hers with barrage of rings of fire. Only Sailor Moon's remained. The fog had completely cleared, yet she was still being chased back and forth by the last remaining wolf!

"Sailor Moon, jump!" yelled Minako as she sent a chain right through the wolf's rib cage. It disappeared with a yelp and the whoosh of the shadows resettling into the earth.

During all this time, the purple monster had been fighting Mamoru in hand-to-hand combat. Everyone turned and starred when they heard the commotion. Mamoru made a final stab when she dissolved in thin air.

"Where did she go?!" He cried angrily.

No one noticed her reappear from a puddle of black gunk on the rooftop, on the side of the street Ami and Renée stood on. Silently, like an owl, she jumped and glided off the ledge, her arms spread wide and her legs out to deliver the finishing blow.

"Tuxedo Mask, look out!" shouted a few of the girls. He turned around and managed to jump backwards, out of the way, but she was ready for that, too. As soon as one of her feet hit the ground, she threw her ball right at him at lightning speed, hitting him in the face. His head snapped back as he fell backwards onto the street.

Renée, regrettably for the monster, was ready as well. As soon as she had saw with her own eyes that the monster was coming down, she had ran after it. She didn't make it to the creature in time to stop it, unfortunately; it still hit Mamoru. She could, however, prevent it from doing any damage to the other girls. The monster didn't even get a chance to laugh, or turn. Right after it had thrown its ball, Renée ran at it and pounced like a panther. Her left hand outstretched, she connected her fingertips to the back of the monsters neck. Both of them fell down forwards, Renée putting all her weigh into the direction of her hand. With the force of the landing, Renée opened her eyes to find herself on top of her with her fingers actually _in_ the monsters neck. Getting her balance at last, she got up and off of the monster and ripped her claws from its flesh, shaking her left hand in disgust.

"Eww," she whined, her fingers covered in deep green goop. The monster got up on her hand and knees, making choking noises and spitting out the same thick, green liquid. Makoto finished it off; making it disappear for good when her circle of electricity landed to the monster's middle. She had reacted and powered up the same time Renée had jumped.

"Mamoru!" shouted Usagi desperately as she ran to his side. Ami came over at a slower pace.

"Usagi, I think he'll be fine. The only thing that hit his head was that ball, and it was his forehead, not his nose or jaw. He's just knocked out," she diagnosed after checking his pulse and examining his head and neck. Renée looked down at him, but only could cringe.

"Ugh, gross," she said while sticking her tongue out. Trying to wipe her hand clean on her uniform, she knew that wasn't the only reason she had cringed. Usagi had had her arms around Mamoru's neck, crying against his chest.

Back at the temple, Renée coloured her cast with the makers she had bought after the fight, and couldn't possibly be any happier than she was at that moment. With a shy smile, she sloppily tried to control the markers in her left hand while she coloured on the cast she had propped up on the table. The only noise came from the markers, and in the peaceful room late at night, the squeaking sound seemed to be amplified. The marker in her left hand was a bit uncomfortable, but as long as she could draw, she was happy to deal with it.

Hearing the racket while walking by in the hall, Rei peaked her head into Renée's room.

"Hey, what are you up to?" asked Rei. Renée looked up with a jump, as if coming back from a trance.

"Oh, I didn't hear you there," Renée breathed out slowly. "Just doodlin'. I haven't been able to for a while."

Going back down to her drawing, Renée kept her head low, hoping Rei wouldn't see what she was doing. But she heard Rei walk over, and felt her face go red when Rei stopped above her shoulder.

"Renée, that's beautiful!" Rei exclaimed, kneeling down next to her.

"Ah, thanks, but it's not that great,"

"No, really! I love it! Especially the way you coloured right over the lines, like abstract, is that's what it's called?"

"Actually, that's because I'm drawing with my left hand…"

"Oh."

Rei sat there for a few more horrifying seconds, before getting up and leaving the room, much to Renee's relief. Rei turned around just as she walked through the door. "If that's what you can do with your left, imaging your right! I can't wait until you get out of that cast."

Renée popped the cap back onto the last marker she used, finished with the top of the cast. Putting them away briskly and crawling over to her bed, she laid down with her right arm in the air above her head. The two angels on her cast, one with silver hair, and the other with black, weren't that bad.

_At least I haven't **screwed** that up_, she thought before drifting away to sleep.


	4. Part 4

The orange skinned creature known as Thunderbird stood on the metal platform, her face twisted in a look of pain and extreme concentration with her arms outstretched as far as possible, every muscle tightened. With her legs shoulder-length apart as if to increase the force, she channelled all her energy into the one orange translucent crystal, flecked with bits of red, before her.

Her hands were so taut that the ligaments and knuckles stood out, causing the skin to go nearly white in the points of high stress. Gritting her teeth with rage, she put all the energy she could into one last transfer of her own energy to the crystal.

The crystal she was so heavily focused on seemed to grow out of a metal podium, which in turn came up out of the platform on which she currently stood. From the podium hung many brightly coloured wires, connecting it to a circular machine that stood in the middle of the room. This machine was marked into three sections, and the orange coded side was lit up like a Christmas tree.

Suddenly everything began to power down, as the light from the machine began to dim. Thunderbird slumped down onto her knees, panting from the effort. Her hands now gripped to the edge of the crystal's display as she attempted to stand again. If only she could give a little more effort, she could stand, and maybe complete her task. That's all she wanted to do, that's all she had to do, just stand up. Her muscles would not hear of it, however, shaking as she tried. If she could just continue a little longer…

"Ugh, why not!" she cried out as she finally gave up, letting her sweaty hands slide down the side of the podium. Slamming her fist against it, she silently admitted defeat by wrapping her arms around her knees.

A tapping noise broke the silence in the large room, quickly becoming louder before stopping abruptly. Thunderbird's self pity would not be broken, though, not even for curiosity's sake to see who or what had approached

 "What's with you?" asked Windfish, tilting her head with the question

 "I hate when you do that," Thunderbird snapped back.

"Hate what?"

"That tilty thing with your head," she spoke through her teeth in irritation as her head sank back into her knees.

Windfish silently surveyed the area, having to come to her own conclusions without the cooperation of Thunderbird. "Ah, you were trying to make a clone as good as Shadowolf?"

"Screw you!" scowled Thunderbird, her head springing back up to deliver the childish blow.

"Oh, come _on _now," Windfish dramatically threw her arms out. "You know what your dumb little mind couldn't figure out? Shadowolf's clone _wasn't_ any better than yours or mine. The clone just seemed better because she's physically stronger than both of us."

"Whoopdidoo. Do I care? No. I know we're all supposed to be 'equal' somehow – I know that I'm faster than both of you, seeing that I always leave you two in my dust. But does that ever help? No! You and your whatever- your stronger powers, do you feel like that makes you equal to Shadowolf? Does it make it seem fairer to you?! I didn't think so!! So **bug** **off**!"

Thunderbird had her arms in the air after talking with them, and was now panting due to her little scene. She didn't like the little attention she seemed to be receiving from Windfish, so she reseeded once more into her shell.

Windfish crossed her arms smugly.

"She failed as well."

Thunderbird jumped up suddenly, eyes wide. "What? REALLY!"

"Yup. Another simple thing you forgot to do – check the facts."

"YES!"

Windfish shook her head, sighing. Thunderbird just continued to celebrate.

"This is great! This is grand! This is AMAZING!"

"Mm, maybe, but it's not the best…"

Thunderbird's face fell. "What? Why? What's wrong?"

"Shadowolf is still Master's favourite."

It took a few seconds for reality to sink in, but when it did, Thunderbird's expression changed drastically.

"Oh yeah… Back to cloning for us," she grumbled.

Windfish slapped her forehead; dragging her hand all the way down her face to keep her herself from lashing out, but the action was in vain.

"You are a MORON! How much energy have you wasted trying to make a super clone?! There is a REASON I came to find the idiot they named Thunderbird. But alas, your insignificant mind missed yet another detail!"

Thunderbird growled, leaning down practically into Windfish's face as she arched one eyebrow and slanted another. "What are you talking about?!"

"I'm talking about our shared passion for hating Shadowolf! We do both hate her, right?"

"Right."

"And we both want to prove ourselves to be better than her to Master, riiiight?"

"Right…"

"And we both want her to fail horribly compared to us-"

"Get to the point, dumb ass!" Thunderbird thrust her fists down besides her, proving she was becoming impatient.

Windfish sighed. She hated trying to talk to the simple folk.

"If we work together on one mission-"

"NO! Nah-ah, ain't going to happen fish face."

"But you don't understand!"

"Oh, I think I do, and I think it'd be much easier for me to make an ultra-clone than it'd be for me to work with YOU. I'd be better off killing all those insane, dirty Sailor Scrubs, even if I were surrounded by twenty of them who were foaming by the mouth, by myself, than I would be working on a simple spying job with you."

As soon as Thunderbird took a step off the platform, Windfish grabbed Thunderbird's ponytail violently, pulling her backwards hard enough to bend the fellow creature' spine in the wrong direction. While Thunderbird kept mewling soft cries of pain, Windfish was finally given a chance to speak.

"Now you listen and you listen hard and well. If we are all equally matched, then the only way to defeat one is to put that one against two of the same. We can both fight her in a combined attempt, both search for the key, and both try to kill the Sailor Soldiers. This way we are guaranteed to succeed at one of our tasks. It's better than wasting vast amounts of our energy in failed attempts at stronger clones."

After pronouncing each word correctly with a harsh rhythm to show she meant business, Windfish let Thunderbird go. Thunderbird rebounded back like a spring, her teeth barred. Windfish let her peer's brain take in the information and process it, waiting for an answer. At last it came out.

"Heeeyyy… you're right! Yeah! Let's do that! We'll finally beat her!"

Windfish nodded with satisfaction.

"Thank you for flying Air Canada, we hope you had a pleasant flight. Merci pour volé sur l'Air Canada…"

A woman's voice was just discernable through the fuzzy speakers, talking to the passengers as they collected their belongings and tried to cram their way through the tiny passageway. A teenage boy, about 16 years old, remained seated, unlike the rest. He was too good to try and shove his way through. 

He could wait. 

Finally, with nearly everyone off, he stood up, grabbing his suitcase out of the top compartment with a bit of a struggle before getting it to his side. By then, the last people were just getting off.

He slipped his dark fallen sunglasses back up his nose before walking, not looking anyone in the eye. 

Through the hall and at last into the terminal of the huge airport, he weaved his way through the people to an empty bench. Sitting down with a heavy thump, he allowed himself to get comfortable.

He didn't need to go to the turntable; the only suitcase he had brought was the one sitting beside him.

He didn't need to hurry and catch a ride; he had no one to meet.

He had nothing to do but to sit there, eyeing the suspicious looking people. He did have a purpose there, a task that he had no idea how to pull off.

After all he'd done, couldn't he figure this out?

He just sat there, thinking, while spreading himself out a bit to make sure no one else even thought of coming onto his bench.

How were you supposed to find someone who didn't want to be found?

It was a gigantic, quiet room; the only sign of life was the soft buzz of electronics and the greenish, pulsing light of monitors. Besides the wall of screens that flickered every moment or so as their scenery changed, the room had a single item in it. An excessively tall, leather bound chair cast a shadow across the room as it blocked the light of the screens. Blood red fingernails tapped against the burgundy leather as its occupant became increasingly annoyed. She was facing the screens, and however unpleased she might have been with what she found on them, something else was gritting her nerves even more.

Somehow, it dealt with the man that stood at attention behind her chair; unable to see the woman he was currently nervous to the point of nausea about. Even if it weren't the oversized chair that blocked her from view, the dim light of the monitors would have only allowed him to see a silhouette.

She, however, could see herself clearly in the mirror she used to spy on him. The purple veins under her sickly white skin were obvious, increasing in visibility when her main emotion, rage, increased in intensity. Her ruby red lips were pursed, and her uncovered eye was the lightest shade of blue. She'd almost look like a porcelain doll, if it weren't for the unsettling mask that covered half of her face.

Her fingernail tapping quickened as she lifted her head from the hand she was leaning it against, laying her eye upon the cause of her irritation.

She let her crimson mirror fall to the ground, shattering on impact into thousands of tiny shards that were set aglow with eerie green light. It was a clear signal to the man behind her.

"I'm sorry my Queen." The man took his cue, knowing her all too well. Stepping forward, he had his hand over his heart respectively, but his eyes showed the fear he wanted to conceal.

"You'd better be. This is disappointing indeed. Three failures…"

The man just swallowed.

"Your little creatures are doing a pitiful job. You're wearing my patience thin."

Her cynical voice rang out like an alarm.

"I'm sorry, my Queen. I just need to make them a little more powerful-"

"Silence! I don't remember telling you, you could speak! Urufu, I foresee the permanent destruction of your creatures, possibly yourself as well. Stop the cloning. Next mission I want to see the real items out there. We already know the clones do nothing."

"But my Queen, what if they are destroyed-"

"Hopefully they will be. Then I won't have to deal with you and your petty projects."

"But-"

"No buts. I don't want to see you until the real creatures have been sent out. Stop wasting our time. We can't wait for eternity, especially given the appearance of these Sailor Soldiers. If they fail, good. If they succeed, even better. Just **do** it."

"But my Queen-"

"Stop QUESTIONING **ME**!" she bellowed, but gained back her composure quickly.

 "Send the real creatures out and succeed, or I'm sending the others out, and sending you to your workshop permanently. Find that KEY!"

The man bowed and crawled out of her site. She sighed, leaning back. Why did she ever give her precious power to him? She knew he wouldn't succeed. She could easily do this on her own. However, she had trusted him and had no idea why.

_Because his ideas were brilliant_, slipped in a hoarse voice in her mind. _We needed his creatures, and he needed our power_.

"True," she mumbled to herself. "But those creatures proved to be worthless."

_No, no, no, no, they weren't completely worthless_.

"No, no they weren't," the persuasive voice made her change her mind in an instant.

_Those creatures helped us feel our way around, to know what we need and what will be in our way_.

"Yes, helped us scan the area."

_Yes, helped us. And once they are completely destroyed by the enemy, he will be willing to continue helping us with a vengeance. The other creatures he is working on, that you ordered him to start, will not be worthless like the other three_.

"No," she said with a deep laugh, "It most certainly will not be."

_We will find the key, don't you worry my child. It didn't take much of my power at all to help Urufu. Like a drop of water in the ocean. We will find the key, and with it unlock the great dragon who will lead us to our victory!_

"Yes," she said unusually calmly, compared to the hissed voice in her head. "We will."

"O-k," Rei said with effort as she carried the blue box into the room. She let it fall onto the table, right before Renée, a little too hard.

"Umm, now can you tell me what the hell this is?" She asked, looking up at Rei with big eyes.

Rei sat down with her, tapping the blue box a few times before starting.

"Renée, I have to tell you something important. Now, there's a bit of a problem going on with the Sailor Soldiers, and I think you should know. I trust you enough to tell you this."

She glanced back and fourth, as if someone were eves dropping. Renée continued to stare at Rei with a look that showed Renée thought she was crazy.

"Now, you know the new enemy?" Rei whispered out, "well, Luna has this crazy idea that… you…. might be working for them…"

Renée sat there blank for a moment, soaking it in.

"So, you think _I'm_ the bad guy?" she asked, squinting her eyes.

Rei hushed Renée's casually loud voice, "no, _I_ don't, or else I wouldn't be telling you this. But Luna does. And since she's the brain of the operations, the other girls are suspecting it."

Renée blinked a couple of times. "Is this how I broke my arm?" she asked, her voiced raised in volume, possibly by a whole octave as well.

"NO, no… well, yes, …_maybe_. Sailor- one of the Sailor's thought you had attacked me."

"Oh," Renée grunted, knowing what had happened. Rei pushed the box towards Renée.

"That's for you."

Renée slit her eyes suspiciously and looked up at Rei. "You just finished saying I might be the enemy… then you give me a mysterious parcel. I bet it's a bomb! Or a bribe. A bribe?"

Rei's face fell in disbelief. "I try to do something nice! Look, I feel bad about the whole hospital thing. Yes,** I** feel bad," Rei stopped to explain at Renée's surprised face, "would you please just open it?"

The box was about one foot by one foot, and a deep navy blue. It looked like one of those boxes you'd get at the mall when you bought something expensive. After expecting it from all angles, twirling it once in a circle, and giving it a shake (which Rei cringed at, fearing for what was in the box,) Renée at last ripped the top open.

"Wow, tissue paper, it's what I always wanted!!!!!"

Rei fell backwards onto the mat. "Stop doing this to me!!!"

"Ok, ok," Renée giggled as she threw the blue paper over her shoulder. 

Underneath was an average pad of sketch paper, accompanied by a package of sketch pencils. They were simplistic, but to Renée they seemed to sparkle.

"These are gorgeous!" she gasped," How DARE you spend so much money on me!!!"

Rei was shocked to see a very angry Renée, clenched fists and all. She couldn't tell if she was joking or not, not until Renée shoved the box back to Rei.

"What, what are you talking about?" Rei asked, both surprised and disappointed.

Renée just shook her head defiantly.

"I'm not letting you spend all your hard earned money by wasting it on me and those gifts. You've already got me markers."

"But those were barely 300 yen-"

"Nuh-un. Take it BACK."

Rei sighed, her shoulders slumping. "But Renée, I can't-"

"You MUST!"

"But-"

"NOW."

"RENÉE! Stop! You don't understand! Those things were on sale at the art shop I pass on the way home from school! I can't take them back, final sale! And mind you, I got it all for a very good price! More than the markers, yes, but still **very cheap**! There, you happy! Now I feel cheap! **GET WELL SOON**!!!!"

She glared at Renée, trying to control her breath again.

Renée sat there, before smiling sheepishly. "Oh, heh heh heh heh, well, then, whoops! I guess I'll just take that now-" Renée slid the box back to her side of the table.

"Oooh, come here come here!" cried an excited Thunderbird. As soon as Windfish came over, she grabbed onto her hand and started jumping up and down.

"What! What is it! Ow, you're hurting me!"

"Look, look at the screen! In Shadowolf's recording! What her clone saw! Look!"

Thunderbird hit the rewind button, finding the right spot.

"There!" she slammed the pause button, and then pointed to something.

"What? I don't _see_ anything," Windfish groaned.

"No, look. The blue Sailor Soldier next to that big, weird purple one? She is being all cautious about her before she used her powers of mist! It's a missstery! Get it? She made it all misty… and… stuff…" Thunderbird slowly came to a stop as she saw the look Windfish gave her.

"Stop being stupid," Windfish turned, but glanced over her shoulder once more, "if that's possible."

"No, no, serious! Look!" She rewound it a bit further before pressing play.

"See! There!" she pointed at Sailor Mercury, then to Sailor Kitty, "she, as in the blue one,  doesn't let her, as in the purple mutated one, out of sight until the very last moment, when it's too foggy to see!"

"You're point?"

"It gave me an idea! What if we morphed our clones into Sailor Soldiers, turning them all against each other!"

"That's not going to work," Windfish muttered while walking away.

"Oh c'mon! It'll work perfectly! We'll pick the two most evil looking ones and go out as them! They shouldn't be too hard to pick out, although they are all girls, so none of them will have sinister looking moustaches- either way. It'll work like a charm."

Windfish breathed deeply, trying to remind herself why she was working with the fellow monster. "They all get along and constantly act companion like. As usual, your plan is useless. It will never work-" Windfish stopped dead in her tracks as something resurfaced in her mind. 

"Wait a minute… Let me recheck another video, but if I'm correct, you might be on to something, which is a first. But there must be a first for everything. My God, Thunderbird on to something… the universe must be out of balance," Windfish insulted her co-worker non stop until she reached her destination; a shelf of videos. It was clear they had been searching for the 'key' for quite sometime, with the vast amount of visual data labelled and sorted onto the shelf. Windfish quickly found what she was looking for, reviewed it in another machine as Thunderbird easily kept herself occupied, and at last returned to the creature who was currently cleaning out her ear.

"For the first time in your short, worthless existence, you were correct," Windfish reluctantly admitted. "I remember on my meeting with the Sailors overhearing something."

She popped the tape into the screen Thunderbird sleepily leaned over now, showing her what her own clone had seen.

"After I trapped those three Soldiers in a bind," she pointed out Sailor Moon, Mercury and Jupiter, "I waited in the forest to ambush any others that came along. But," she waited and pointed out Sailor Kitty approaching, "I did not ambush that one, since I realized the position I was in would have been to noisy to attack from, and that staff she held had a dagger end I was afraid of. So I tried to make my way further down the path, finding a perfect branch to perch on, since I assumed they'd follow the direction I disappeared in. However, I moved slowly at the beginning, being closer to them and afraid of being noticed. I ended up over hearing the one dressed in blue talk to the one that appears out of place, the 'purple' one. It seems to be that she is a new addition, and with those two facts; the fact that she's new and the fact that she appears mutated," Windfish had to explain, picking up that the blank face of Thunderbird meant she did not understand. Windfish starred at her for a few moments, waiting for a question, or even a signal to continue, but when the blank look remained, she carried on anyway.

"As I was saying," she said slowly, hoping to get across to the numb mind before her, "It'd be worth a try. Not like we have anything else to try. Maybe we could pull it off…"

"The red one! I want to be the red one! FIRE!" Thunderbird shouted.

"No you FOOL! She's not out of place at all, they'll become suspicious then!" Windfish threw her arms out, angry.

"Ooohhh," Thunderbird clued in at last, tapping her chin with her index finger in an attempt to look intelligent.

"We can only do one Sailor, we don't have enough energy. Plus, it is going to have to be the one they know least about, or trust the least. Are best chances are to go with the new one. I'll be the 'purple' one."  
"But… but… what do I do then?" Thunderbird pouted, looking as if she would cry.

"You can go out as well, but as yourself. If it works, you can be the red one next time," Windfish compromised, knowing that if it ever came to that, there would be no next time for her 'partner'.

"HURAH!" Thunderbird danced around, as Windfish rubbed her temples. She wished she could just slap her and get out of there, but they had work to do.

Minako threw the ball into the air, before bringing her arm down onto it so hard it just slid over the net with a spin and landed neatly in the sand of the opposite court. She sighed and walked under the net to get the ball and serve again.

She had been practicing for some time on the deserted beach volleyball court, trying to get her mind off of everything.

When the last ball was sent over with a cry from Minako, the calm of the early morning set in again. She could hear distant birds chirping, and knew it would be a good hour before the sun rose high enough to warm everything up again. Minako shivered.

The Sailor business was bothering her. First of all, the monsters were wearing on her nerves. They've fought them three times - who knows how many times they've attacked some civilians without her knowledge - and still had no idea about where they came from or what they were.

Then there was Luna's proposal of Renée being the enemy. Minako squeezed the volleyball in her hand. She wished she knew Renée better, so it'd be fairer to judge. But she didn't, so Minako remained neutral. Renée wasn't friend or foe at the moment.

Minako hoped that would change as she sent the ball over the net again.

Makoto took a long sip out of her drink before answering Ami.

"I don't know myself, Ami, I don't really think she's the enemy. And she won't be until someone proves it to me."

Ami nodded. "You're right, I was pretty sceptical when Luna told me at first. I'm willing to be suspicious of her, but I will not assume she is evil until we get good evidence."

"Yeah. It's almost like Luna's prejudging Renée. Do we have to talk about this at the mall? It kinda ruins the mood."

"Well it's not like I have any purpose here." Ami stuck her nose back in the book she had been reading. "I told you to try and get hold of Minako and Usagi again."

"I did! I don't know where anyone else is… they'll be peeved when they learn we went to the mall without them."

Just then Makoto got a quick flash of a bad vibration.

"Did you feel that?" Makoto lowered both her head and volume, just to make sure only Ami heard what she said. Ami nodded.

"Come on," Ami harshly whispered back, "out that door."

Minako spiked another ball, but it went at a weird angle and bounced onto the pavement, and around the corner of the public washrooms.

"No!" Maniko cried, "Ugh, I don't want to get that."

Walking slowly after it, Minako found the runaway ball leaned up against the swings. That's when she heard the voice.

"Damn Windfish, she thinks she's soooo great! _I'll be the purple one, I'll fight at the mall_, _you_ _go to a schoolyard_. There are lots of kids there! Well guess WHAT Windfish! There isn't one! ONE!!!"

Minako pressed her back against the tiny brick building, turning the corner first as to not be seen. The voice sounded strange, and the content of the speaker's rant was definitely unsettling. She peeped around the corner, seeing a creature similar to the one that had busted her chest in what seemed like ages ago. 

_You're mine_, she promised the monster in her mind, her eyes becoming slits as she reached for her transformation pen. _When seeking revenge, dig a grave! You are done, monster!_

"Venus Star Power, Make-up!"

"Whoa, who's there?!" questioned the monster, her head perking up at the first sign of a threat. She squeezed her volleyball weapon with each individual finger nervously, her eyes shifting all over the place. That voice was definitely not one of a 5 year old, like she had been expecting.

Minako proudly turned the corner; smiling with the thought of the days she did this alone and with the taste of vengeance near. 

"It's me, loser, Sailor V! AKA Sailor Venus, the soldier of love, justice and beauty! I'll show you how to really use that ball. I'll pound you into the ground with it! A pretty suited Sailor Soldier, Sailor Venus! In the name of love and justice, I'll beat you at your own game!"

Thunderbird moaned, pulling on her cheeks. "Why do you guys always appear by coming around the corner of brick buildings? Remind me to stay away from them…"

"I'm here to protect, and get revenge for that giant bruise I got from one of your friends. Get over here, punk!" Sailor Venus jumped up and tried to land a kick in the monster's face.

"AH!" the monster screamed in a very high pitch. "HELP! WINDFISH!"

Thunderbird ran out of the playground and veered down the street towards the mall.

"Oh no you don't! Get back here!" Sailor Venus shot out, in hot pursuit.

When Ami and Makoto had made it out of the mall, the back of a female figure, wearing a silver body suit and a purple skirt, greeted them. The girl was extremely tall, somewhat muscular, had a tail with matching cat ears and even an authentic cast on her right arm.

"What?!" cried Makoto.

Windfish twitched her new tail a bit, trying to heighten the suspense. She turned slowly, smiling in satisfaction.

_The plan, it may actually work!_ She thought. _This is great!_

"Renée," Ami tried to reason, "is there another monster around here? What's going on?"

Windfish couldn't help but giggle at her success.

"I don't know, you tell me," she toyed with them, pointing behind her with her thumb. There lay a handful of several limp figures, shopping bags spread all across the walkway.

"If a monster is someone who does that, well, then, heh!" she closed her eyes, crossed her arms and lifted her chin with pride.

"None of them had the key, so if you don't mind removing yourself from my path…" Windfish motioned to Makoto and Ami.

"Why… why would you do this to us!" Ami yelled, unable to cover up the pain from betrayal as her volume rose with the second part of the sentence.

Windfish just wouldn't stop smirking, a fact that bothered the two soldiers present. Her ignorance, her careless attitude, and her ability to hurt others deliberately… it was an unpleasant eternity before Windfish gave a thought-out response.

"It's the way we had planned it."

"You aren't getting away with this!" shouted Ami, pulling out her own transformation pen and backing up into the mall doors. Makoto followed suit.

"Where you going, hey?" taunted the new Sailor Kitty. "Afraid that everyone's gonna know your secret?!"

Inside Windfish was actually glowing at this discovery. She wasn't planning on crossing the path of two unprepared Sailor Senshi. They had to be Sailor Senshi, if they new so much about the character she was currently playing. Their identities could be very important information for the Master; she was ecstatic with the fact.

Ami glanced around, coming to the unfortunate conclusion that Renée had knocked out, scared away, or even killed anyone who was outside on this particular side of the mall. Making a few strides to have her back to the cement wall, just to be certain nothing was seen through the glass doors, she shouted her war cry with her arm outreached.

"Mercury Star Power, Make-up!"

A bright blue aurora fluttered over her before disappearing. Transformed as Sailor Mercury, she looked even angrier.

"I am the pretty suited Sailor Soldier, Sailor Mercury! In the name of love and knowledge, I'll wash you away for the injustices you have committed!"

Following Ami's lead, Makoto shouted "Jupiter Star Power, Make-up!" Transformed in the same glow of light as Ami, green shot out over her and disappeared nearly instantly.

"I am the pretty suited Sailor Soldier, Sailor Jupiter! In the name of love and protection, I will kick your traitor ass!"

Sailor Mercury started powering up first, but Sailor Jupiter stepped out in front of her.

"You already got a shot at her arm, I want a turn now," she barked, preparing herself to attack.

"You've got to be kidding me," Windfish grinned. She got a better grip on her fake staff and copied Sailor Jupiter's pose.

"You think you are so tough!?" Jupiter teased, "fight me like a real monster, and get rid of that staff! You're going down for what you've done!"

Windfish tossed the staff aside carelessly, not removing her eyes from those of Makoto. Sailor Jupiter gave a cry, leaping up while swinging the first kick.

Thunderbird ran faster than ever, being able only to hear her own footsteps and raspy breathing, a result of her fear. That blond ditz barely behind her was out for some serious revenge.

"Run all you can, you can't escape the chain of love! Venus Love-Me CHAIN!"

Thunderbird jumped with precision, avoiding the chain, THIS time. However, she was covered in painful whip marks where Minako's chain had connected with her from only moments before. She started to wail.

"WHY couldn't **I** be the purple one?!"

Sailor Jupiter and the Fake Sailor Kitty had been duelling it out for the past ten minutes. Windfish had a few bruises here and there, and even a bleeding lip from a well placed punch. She was breathing hard, but was still rearing to go.

Sailor Jupiter, on the other hand, was scratched, cut and bleeding all over. Breathing hard, she took up her ready stance again, but wasn't sure how long she could keep going. She wouldn't let Sailor Mercury help – she wanted to finish the liar off herself, so she had to go as long as the traitor did. 

Sailor Kitty was a good fighting opponent, but had so many advantages it wasn't fair. Makoto had been scratched deeply by her long claws and even strangled with her tail until she had heeled Sailor Kitty right in the curve of her foot. Her height and weight was an advantage, too. She was just lucky she hadn't been bitten yet by the rabies infested fleabag. 

"You done yet?" Windfish said easily, as if she had no care in the world.

"I'm… I'm just getting started!" Jupiter said with a struggle.

Suddenly thundering footsteps were heard.

"Windf-" Thunderbird caught her mistake in time. No one had turned to look at her when she had yelled out.

"Kitty!" shouted Thunderbird at last, much louder than before. "HELP ME! This one is CRAZY!"

She was finally able to dash behind Windfish, using her as a human shield.

"What the hell is this?" Minako cried, sliding to a stop.

"We're out of here," Windfish said stately. Windfish and Thunderbird vanished.

"What'd you do that for?" shouted Thunderbird, "We nearly had them!"

"It's more effective if we let them fight amongst themselves. We'll come back when the real Sailor Kitty appears. They'll all be so afraid of her, we'll-"

"SNEAK ATTACK THEM FROM BEHIND!" Shouted Thunderbird so enthusiastically; she fell to her knees with her arms in the air.


	5. Part 5

Brilliant orange light surrounded Sailor Venus for a fleeting moment as she once again became the normal school girl Minako, but she was far from feeling normal. The light from the setting sun set her features aglow with a fiery look of determination.

"That traitor!" she hissed, whipping her hair she spun so fast. "I really thought she was on our side! I wanted her to be one of us! But she turns around and does this - how dare she!" Minako clenched her fists so hard, her nails dug into the soft flesh of her palms. She didn't notice at first, the rising well of frustration and anger eased just a bit by the unconscious act. She at last let her hands relax, opening and closing her aching fingers. The unsettling event had really gotten to her, causing her to be disappointment in herself as well as the villain Soldier. Although Sailor Kitty being a fraud made more sense than the alternative, deep down she had hoped and believed Renée was really one of them.

"Minako, please calm down for a moment," Ami spoke with assertion, "I know how you feel; she betrayed us all..."

"Yeah," Makoto said in a low growl, "But we're gonna have to put our anger to use if we are going to catch her."

"Yes," Ami said thoughtfully, her head lowered as her fingers rested against her chin. The sun's strange angle hid her face from her friends, but her sigh reflected her feelings. "We must be level headed if we are going to beat the enemy," Ami spoke softly, still hesitant to using the word 'enemy' while referring to Renée. It seemed like the person they had just encountered was completely different from the girl she remembered; but at times it did appear as if Renée had a dark side.

"I bet she went back to the temple," Makoto jeered, though her tone was underlined with concern, "if she catches Rei off guard, who knows what she'll do!"

Minako gave a sharp nod of agreement, "Let's go then, quickly!"

Minako hammered on the door, at last arriving at Rei's temple. Rei opened the door to see her friends, all three of them exsausted and distraught.

"What the hell happened?!"

Minako tried to answer, but she was hunched over her knees, trying to catch her breath. She tried to slip in the words between gulps of air.

"Sailor Kitty…. Evil….. attacked…. Mako….."

Rei felt the beginnings of dread turning her insides to lead from unbearable guilt. If Minako spoke the truth . . . Rei's eyes narrowed sharply with concern, but she wasn't going to believe them that easily. Her voice thick with doubt, she addressed Makoto instead of the gasping girl before her.

"What is she talking about?"

"Doubt us if you want, Rei," Minako said with more ease as oxygen finally reached her lungs, "but Makoto's got the scratches to prove it."

Makoto held her forearm over Minako's still slumped figure to show Rei one of her bleeding wounds.

"We all saw her attacking people, Rei," Ami said in an apologetic tone, "all of us."

Rei felt the inside of her stomach fall out – the nightmare she had dismissed as just that had become a reality. It seemed everything had stopped, even the wind, to hear what pitiful excuse she had for what she had done. The first day Renée had arrived Rei had sensed that something might be wrong. The feelings had gone away, but what they had been warning her about hadn't. If only she had gone with her first instinct and sent the monster away! Now her friends were hurt, and it was all her fault. She was the one who trusted Renée she was the one who let Renée become part of the group, and now she was responsible for her friends' pain. Rei had no one to blame but herself.

Everyone was starring at her, waiting for her response and hers alone. She could feel their eyes boring into herself, knowing she had done something terribly wrong. She couldn't, however, find the words to form a response. She stood in silence, punishing herself, until at last she could put weak words to her maelstrom of thoughts.

"It was her… it had to be her… she hasn't been here all day," Rei bowed her head in shame as she physically acknowledged the truth.

The girls looked on with a mixture of surprise and sympathy. They knew Rei thought highly of Renee; they knew this truth was a painful one for the young priestess to bear. They had not expected her to name Renée as the culprit so quickly however. They had expected to argue relentlessly over the fact for some time to come. With eyes sad for their fellow warrior, the girls watched her put thoughts to softly spoken words.

"She's been gone all day," Rei repeated softly to herself, "I can't believe this…"

"Oh my god, she could have been attacking innocent people all this time!" Minako spoke what they were all thinking, straightening up at last.

Rei's heart was sinking fast. She had been betrayed; after all she had done for Renée. From inviting her into Rei's home, putting up with her, and defending her! She didn't want to believe it, but she had no choice…

How could it be? How could she have been so wrong? Because of Rei's foolishness, three of her closest friends had been forced into battle, and now one was hurt. How could she have been so wrong?

The priestess of flame's eyes narrowed, her blood boiling, her body tensing and her soul freezing over with the icy fire of realization as she finally got a grip with herself. She was loyal to her friends; the one who had tricked them all, who had lied to her own face would pay for this.

Renée would pay for Rei's pain.

"We've got to get her before she does anything else," Rei said quietly, almost under her breath, but with purpose and rock hard solidity that dared anyone to challenge her.

-------------------------------

Much earlier that day, Renée had left the temple with the art supplies Rei had given her as a gift the day before. Renée was very grateful for them, and was eager to put them to use. After training to move her right hand's fingers without pain the night before, she packed everything in a bag Rei had loaned her and set out. Renée sat by the lake, on a park bench just off the cement path that went in between the forest and the lakefront. Probably the same forest her first battle with the Sailor Soldiers took place in, she thought with a shiver. Letting herself flop onto the bench, Renée carefully set up everything perfectly before she started, not leaving a pencil without a place.

However, no matter how hard she tried, everything she drew, or tried to draw, came out completely wrong. She had been sitting by the lake since nine, and it was now eleven.

"Oooh, lunchtime," Renée realized, a small amount of contentment finally flowing through her after two hours of complete frustration. Extreme frustration, Renée noted as she rubbed her sore jaw - it seemed to have been clenched ever since she had started. It was then she finally took note of all the balled paper around her and decided it might be best to clean up her mess.

One had rolled into the lake, she discovered, as she began her task. A family of ducks was curiously picking it to bits. Renée watched it slowly sink, a bit dismayed with herself. It seemed no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get better at drawing.

Renée retraced her steps to the temple. There were so many little shops, stores, clinics and restaurants along the way; she found a new one she hadn't spotted before every 5 minutes. Luckily for her, the window-shopping was, as planned, taking her mind off her drawing failures.

There were toy stores with such tempting displays, she nearly found herself in the store itself. Many of the clothing places with faceless mannequins wearing the latest fashions had her snorting in hidden envy. Lastly, a tiny place with a big window trimmed in a brilliant blue and gold caught her attention.

Renée stopped to inspect this store as it had paintings set up on easels in a neat arrangement in the front store window - gorgeous paintings.

She was completely in awe of the beautiful works of art - five in total. Most of them were elaborate landscapes of the ocean, with the water dancing in such a way that it morphed the boring landscape into a picture of a living soul. The one that caught her eye the most, however, was the one of a young woman who seemed to be able to control even the restless waves of the sea, standing on a rock amidst an ocean of blue, green and purple glimmering water.

Renée's face completely pressed up against the glass, not being able to rip her eyes off that painting. _Wow, that's amazing! Geeze, what I'd give to be able to do that!_

She scanned the window front for the name of the artist. There it was, in gold lettering in both Japanese and English.

_Name in gold, I want my name in gold! To have your paintings held in a gallery, for sale, how lucky! How talented! How incredibly unfair! Life why must you laugh at me?_ She glanced back at the nametag. _To be making a living off this talent, wow. Michiru Kaioh you are my new idol!_

A tapping noise tore Renée from her thoughts. A woman in a business suit was tapping the glass from the other side, a look of discontent deepening the lines in her face.

"Get off the glass!" Her voice was heard, muffled, through the window. Renée rolled her eyes before pushing herself off the glass.

"Psh, she just lost _her_self a customer," Renée grumbled.

Usagi groaned audibly, not being able to see beyond the grocery bag she held in front of her face. She also had two other very heavy bags hooked onto each wrist, as she tried to carry the third using both hands. "This is a lot harder without Chibi-Usa to help…" she muttered with a tone that showed her dislike for the brat but also hinted that Usagi really missed her. 

"Just a few more blocks," she tried to go as slowly as she could without losing her balance, so as to not hit anyone. However, her planned failed as she tripped, stubbing her toe on a particularly high slab of concrete the city passed off as a sidewalk. Usagi might have caught herself at the last minute, if there hadn't been another girl in front of her. "Oomph!" someone cried out as Usagi collided right into her. "WHAAAAA!" The other girl stumbled backwards as Usagi went down, face first into the concrete, the first two bags still looped around her arms. The last one, however, was missing; it had fallen from her grasp when she had attempted to save her face. When she looked up to apologize, she found a very startled Renée with a bad grip on Usagi's third grocery bag.

"Hey, Renée! I'm so sorry about that, I can be a bit clumsy sometimes," She giggled, her arm behind her head in embarrassment. "Hey, nice catch!"

"Bag, Bag, BAG!" Renée said rapidly, her hand burning in pain as she tried to keep her delicate grip on the now-so-precious grocery bag.

"AH, right!" Usagi freed Renée by taking the load of the grocery bag upon herself and gently setting it on the ground. Usagi jumped up, brushing herself off before greeting Renée at last.

"So nice to see you," she smiled. "Where were you off to?"

"Ah, I was just heading back to Rei's temple for lunch. And you?"

"I was trying to get all these groceries home," Usagi's face fell from cheerful to depressed as she let her head drop and shoulders slump, "another new chore added to my list from Mom to make more money, since I spent my months allowance in one trip to the comic book store."

Suddenly Usagi realized what she said and clasped both hands in front of her in a plea. "Please don't tell Rei that lil tidbit of information! She'll let me have it for being 'irresponsible' again! Even though she'll probably borrow all those comic books in the end, I'll have you know!"

Renée laughed. "Don't worry, Usagi, your little mistake is safe with me. Lord knows there's a few things I wouldn't want Rei to know, in fear of getting the boot," Renée looked away innocently, her arms behind her back like a child trying to avoid the gaze of an angry mother. It was Usagi's turn to laugh.

"She can be so bossy sometimes, but I know she means well," Usagi stated as she tried to pick up the demon grocery bag again after hooking her wrists through the rings of the other two. Renée took it from her grip, drawing Usagi's gaze again.

"This thing's a beast! Let me help you with it," Renée smiled, trying to hold on to it.

"Thank you!" Usagi sighed with relief. "It's not that far to my house, just a couple of blocks that way. You should come over for lunch! My Mom bakes tons of goodies _all _the time, and unless you don't like deserts you'll love it. Do you like pie?"

Renée was overwhelmed with the prospect of sugary goodies; at last someone who understood the greatness of desert! Living at Rei's meant she didn't always get her daily requirement of junk.

"Do I? Ha! Man, I could really use anything sweet right now!"

"Alright then! Afterwards, maybe I can take you to the arcade! Minako and I go there all the time. There's a pretty cute guy that works there, too," Usagi elbowed Renée, smirking.

-------------------------------

Renée stepped into Usagi's quiet house. It was adorable, completely spotless and everything in it's place. It reminded Renée of a dollhouse, really.

"Hello Usagi! I have lunch ready, so- Oh, who's your friend?" Usagi's mother asked politely, peeking around the corner to greet her daughter with lunch.

"Her name's Renée! She comes from- where do you come from again, Renée?"

"Canada," Renée smiled. Her mother seemed so genuine and kind, she couldn't help but smile around her.

"Ah, right, Canada! I knew it was an English country, and somewhere in North America…"

"Usagi!" her mother cried out, in pure amazement, "if you knew that, how in heavens name did you manage to fail your geography test?"

"Heh heh heh, I have to show Renée something in my room before she has to go," Usagi lied as she grabbed Renée's wrist, pulling her down a hall to her room. Once she had shut the door, she laughed again. "Yeah, my grades aren't the best, but I'm passing with them and that's all that matters!"

"Usagi, don't worry, you aren't alone," Renée grinned and waved her hand, shooing the previous event away. "You're in high school by now, right? Maybe you guys could help me as well, once I get back into school."

"High school? Are you kidding? I'm only 14! Here we start high school when we're 16. I don't want to think about it – entrance exams, yuck!"

Renée knitted her brow, a little confused. "You start at 16? Then if I started school, and I'm 15, would that mean I would have to write the entrance exams? Or would I be starting the year before high school, to prepare for them?"

Renée pondered it for quite some time, the constant expression of those who are pretending to look like they are thinking clearly plastered on her face.

"Oh, what's the use!?"

"That's the way I look at it!" Usagi exclaimed her agreement, lying over her bed now and looking at a comic book cover. "Heh heh, this was sooo worth it! Wanna read some?" she asked, tossing Renée a first issue, "they are so funny, and romantic too!"

"Ech, romance, keep it away. Just pass me the funnies!" Renée grinned, catching the next one Usagi tossed.

Usagi was already deep into her story by the time that Renée began to study the front cover, and finally opened the book after its front had been approved. Suddenly, she was lost. Renée flipped through the book, watching the pretty artwork flash by before she reached the other side. Realizing she had it backwards, Renée opened the book from what western folk would consider the back, and attempted to decipher the storyline from the pictures alone. This, however, resulted in a very frustrated Renée very quickly. Looking up and seeing how entranced Usagi was in her story, Renée decided to continue on, not wanting to bother her.

Usagi was snapped out of her trance, being forced to glance over at Renée when she heard audible growling noises from the teenager. Something was wrong.

The thought of her last official meeting with her fellow soldiers darted across her mind, causing a bit of guilt to pool in her stomach. _This proves it_, Usagi optimistically decided, _there's no way I could hang out with her like this if she was linked to the enemies. How dare we even think like that… poor Renée…_

Usagi studied the foreigner quietly. _She's all the way from Canada, Usagi pondered,__ that's pretty cool. I wonder how she can speak our language, though. That's a little weird. Of course, she's a bit weird… not in a bad way! Still, sounds like she's having trouble over there._

"Something wrong?" Usagi piped up, deciding to lend a hand.

Renée slumped, exasperated. At last giving up her charade, she flopped the book along with her hand to the floor.

"I love pictures and all but I can't tell what's going on…  I can't read Japanese. I've never read a comic book before, so I don't even know if I'm reading it right!" She rambled off, afraid of the ridicule that might come upon her after the truth was revealed.

"Never read a comic book?!" Usagi gasped in horror, "that's horrible! Get over here, right now! You are going to read this comic book, even if I have to read it out loud!" Usagi ordered, pounding her fist into the mattress. Renée slowly made her way over, resting her head and her arms on the bed like a lonely puppy. Usagi cleared her throat.

"So, why can't you read Japanese?" She asked, taking the opportunity to possibly answer some of the things she'd wondered about just moments earlier. 

Catching Renée completely off guard, she replied with a "huh?" She was expecting Usagi to read a hilarious story, not to start some personal investigation. She didn't really blame Usagi for being curious; Usagi hardly knew anything about her. She just hadn't been ready for it.

"Well you speak it so well, with a cute accent and all," Usagi teased, "but you can't read?"

"Or write, obviously," Renée added. "Yeah, the only reason I can speak it is that I had a friend who was Japanese back in Canada, and he taught be bit by bit since we were really little. It kinda became our secret code."

"Why did you leave Canada?" Usagi pressed on.

"That's a bit of a long story…" Usagi nodded to Renée's short reply, after she had trailed off. Usagi could sense the tension and decided to start reading the book.

After about seven outbursts of unexplained laughter coming from down the hall, Usagi's mother had given up.

"Usagi," she said as she opened Usagi's door, "lunch has been ready for a while! I don't know what's so funny, but you can come back to it later! Go eat lunch!"

Usagi snickered, closing the book, and causing Renée to snicker. Finally the two made a return trip down the hall towards the kitchen, at last getting something to eat.

"Oh WOW, that looks so good…" Renée drooled.

"Wait until you see desert!" Usagi busted with excitement, but Renée was already scarping things down. "What, don't they feed you at Rei's?!"

"Mmmmphmmm," Renée said before swallowing. "Yes, but it's not as good as this, and there are no forks either. I can't use those things… who would have thought a comic book could be funny? Can I borrow it? It was hilarious! Even if I can't read it, I can look at the funny pictures! And if all else fails, I can try to get Rei to read it to me…" Renée rambled on, making the most out of her pause between eating. She looked at Usagi, pleading.

Usagi nodded, starting to laugh again. "Yeah, that drawing with the rock was pretty funny."

"What's so good about them? I don't see why you girls find those so funny," Usagi's mother criticized. She had been at the sink the whole time, her back to them, but had listened in on their conversation regardless.

Usagi and Renée looked up at each other, sharing glances, as if sharing an inside joke. Just then, they burst out in short snorts of amusement, their mouths full of food barely being held in.

-------------------------------

"Oh, it's getting late," Usagi decided, looking at the afternoon sun. She had been giving Renée the tour of her city, trying to get the stranger more familiar with the land, especially the hot spots like the Crown Café (they both had two sundaes – each, not in total), the toy store, and the comic book shop (Usagi looked longingly at the ones she didn't own for at least half an hour, until the owner kicked them out, yelling "This is a bookstore, not a library!"), not to mention the park, the mall, several streets that provided great window shopping and a boutique (the owner was not too pleased after Usagi tried a wedding dress on, scamming an employee to believing she was a bride-to-be. "Well, I WILL be a bride one day!" was her excuse, and the two were removed from the store with a scene Renée was quite proud of). 

"We still haven't been to the arcade! That is THE best place ever. What a way to end today, right?"

"Oh Usagi, please just let me sit! I'm so outta shape," Renée joked, finding her way to a rail she could lean on. She had put her jacket on since it was surprisingly windy and cool that day, even though the sun had been high in the sky all day long. Leaning casually against the cold metal, she started fumbling through her pocket out of habit, finding something in there unexpectedly pleasant.

"Ooo, Smarties!" she exclaimed, taking out the box of chocolate. "I forgot I had these!"

"What are those?" Usagi asked curiously, peering over her arm.

"Just the greatest candy ever! Candy coated chocolate in all the colours of the rainbow," she quoted the box with enthusiasm, with a bit of adlibbing, "Do you eat the red ones last?"

"I don't get it."

"Neither do I. Oh well, screw the red ones. Want some?" Renée offered her find to Usagi.

"Sure! Umm, wait, candy from Canada… how long have they been in your pocket?"

"At least three months."

"Good enough for me!" Usagi swiped the box from Renée's hands, but she didn't notice. Something had caught her eye by the hotel a block down the street.

"Hey, these are pretty good! Even after three months!"

"Un huh…"

"Whatchya looking at?" Usagi crunched, her attention partially absorbed by the candy.

"Nothin', Usagi."

"K."

Usagi continued to crunch, shaking the box to look at all the colours. Renée remained attentive to whatever it was in the distance.

She could of sworn she saw something, no, someone, that was familiar to her - _very_ familiar. She blinked, trying to regain her focus on reality and to tell herself that she was going insane. It could not be a person she knew. She knew no one.

But I could have sworn… 

"Renée, ready to head for the arcade?" Usagi asked, tossing the empty box into the garbage pail, missing it by a mile.

Renée snapped back to reality. "Sure, Usagi, I'll gladly go beat you!"

"Oh, you are on!" she challenged, jogging toward the Crown Arcade.

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE!!?" Renée hammered the keys, trying to relay the finishing blow to the boss. The snake-like demon bit her head off for the seventh time, causing the universally infamous Game Over to flash on and off the screen, her last life taken away from her.

"SON of a-"

"Renée, calm down!" Usagi said, bumping Renée out of the way. "I'll get her! Hah!"

"The keys are sticky, Usagi, it wasn't my fault! Plus, I'm handicapped!" she declared, pointing to her cast, "C'mon let me have another turn-"

"You lost fair and square," Usagi made a gesture with her fingers that created lopsided square in the air, "Besides, you said you are able to move your fingers just fine now. Be patient!"

Renée grumbled as she leaned up against the machine beside Usagi. It was getting pretty late by then, so they were the only people in the Arcade besides a handful of others.

Renée stared out of the darkening front window, checking her watch when the streetlights went on, and pretending to be interested in a group of children that ran from one end of the window to the other.

"Darn it! I can't lose! That's not right! You're right about that sticky key-"

"Usagi, I meant the one on the right, not the left."

"…. Let's just say they were both sticky. I think it's time we go home, dinner! Want to come to my house again?"

"Nah, no thanks Usagi. I best be headin' home."

It was weird to call the temple home; it had come out of her mouth so easily. Was it really her home? 

Usagi pulled on her coat as they left the building, both starting out in the same direction. They talked about random things they saw on the way home, the bubbly Usagi laughing at nearly everything. Renée would usually join her in the pointless outbursts, but something was bothering her. She kept looking over her shoulder.

"What are you looking at this time, Renée?"

Renée forced a chuckle, "I just like to space out sometimes, no big deal."

"Oh, ok!" Usagi continued, beginning an autobiography about the adventures in spacing out that had occurred during her life.

Renée kept giving paranoid 'over the shoulder' looks to whatever was behind them, the random backward glances becoming more frequent as they made their way home. 

Renée was ultimately rewarded for her efforts when suddenly, her breath catching, she spotted a darting shadow behind them.

"Usagi, I'm gonna walk all the way to your house, if that's ok, since I think I forgot my bag there."

It wasn't a complete lie – her bag really was in Usagi's room.

"Really? I was planning on dropping it off at Rei's tomorrow. It's kinda late, you sure?"

"That's really nice of you, Usagi" Renée complimented, completely sincere, "but I may as well get some exercise if I'm going to try and keep up with the rest of you guys," Renée faked another chuckle.

Usagi shrugged, oblivious to the possible stalker that was quickening the beats of Renée heart.

Renée waved goodbye to Usagi, thanking her for the day of entertainment before briskly putting one hand in the pocket of her jacket, slinging the other that held her bag over her shoulder, and walking away. However, instead of starting on the path that led towards the temple, Renée ended up walking down the sidewalk she and Usagi had just trekked, looking for the shadow that had followed them. She was sure she saw something, so Renée looked for the non-living things that might have caused the ominous shadow she thought she had seen following them. She tried to convince herself it was nothing, and if it were something, it would not have been an object that could breathe. No matter how she tried, though, at the back of her head the irrational fear grew and caused her to be jumpy.

Finally ending her quest at the newly darkened arcade, she couldn't find anything that matched what she had caught a glimpse of. It may have been her imagination stretching the truth, but whatever had happened was over now. At last she left the haunting game centre, its deserted belly quite the opposite to what she had left it as.

Suddenly a clatter came from behind her, and she saw something jump at her from the corner of her eye.

She ducked to avoid whatever had been swung at her, and swiftly turned as she prepared to give a kick in the face to her offender.

The eerily silence came upon her as she watched an alley cat run in the opposite direction. 

She felt her face blush in the dark, discovering the cat was easily 10 feet away. To know she had let that freak her out to the point of attacking air was embarrassing.

"I bet you, Renée, it's that damned soldier stuff that's causing you to go off the deep end here," she rationalized to herself, putting both hands on her head. She took a few breaths to regain her nerves and started to head 'home'.

She walked a few good steps with herself convinced that nothing was there. When something poked her in the back pretty hard, she let her bag slip off her shoulder, the abiotic object her main suspect.

The bag had been on her left shoulder. Something poked her in her right rib.

"Hey," a male voice said from behind her, causing her to reel around and whack her assassin right in the ribs with her bag. In defence, the attacker covered the mouth of the now-squealing-in-attempt-to-roar girl and spun her around once again so that her back was against his chest.

Renée felt a panic button go off inside her, the situation all too familiar. The reaction caused a sudden rush of adrenaline, giving her the speed and strength to bombard the man's ribs again with the elbow of her good arm, while in the meantime biting and breaking the skin of the hand that held her silent.

Ecstatic with her victory and the taste of freedom, Renée whipped around when she had bolted a safe distance from the now slumped figure that clutched his hand to his chest, and made the dumb mistake of becoming cocky in her glory.

"Bastard! Don't make me go Sailor on your ass!!" she exclaimed in her native language unconsciously, pointing her index finger of her coated right arm at her assailant.

"Oh God, what the hell was that for?"

The familiar voice sliced through Renée, the English response even more unexpected.

Renée could have mistaken the voice; she could not mistake the language.

Renée stood silent, not daring to blink in case the figure disappeared – what was going on?

"Oh God I've really gone insane," she whined in partial fear, streaking her fingers through her hair and over her head as she sank to the ground, leaning against the nearest wall.

"Oh God, Oh God."

She rocked back and forth, trying to grasp what was happening to her mind.

"Hey! Renée?" The now obvious teenage boy approached her, clearly worried.

Renée raised her previously lowered head to look right into the eyes of her former attacker. He was a fairly tall 16 year old; considering his ethnic background, which was clear from his cute almond shaped eyes, he was still taller than her. A shock of brown hair fell into his deep chocolate eyes - unsettling familiar eyes.

"Are you real," Renée asked in a very flat voice as if her soul had been sucked out of her. She wasn't even looking at him anymore; she was looking straight ahead with her hands tightly wrapped in her hair.

"Of course I am! Maybe you did go nuts," he smiled faintly, a little afraid of what she could do.

He had the right to be afraid.

Her head snapped up back to him, her eyes wide and her teeth barred as she rose quickly to stand before him.

"How DARE you! You asshole! You Bastard!" she shouted, taking a few steps closer to him.

"Whoa, ok, Renée calm down a bit and just tell me what's wrong."

"What's WRONG?! What's **wrong**, eh? Well, why don't you tell me how the hell you got here, how did you find me, why did you stalk me, when did you get here, who do you think you are, how long have you been holding out on me, why did you leave me, how could you have done this to me, and **why aren't you _dead?_**!"

Renée just rambled it all off, advancing on him until she was close enough to poke him hard in the eye; she was clearly daring herself to do so with the way she held it threateningly. 

She looked as if she could strangle him. Renée might have, too, if he hadn't taken a few steps back in turn.

"You want me to be dead?" He asked, his voice higher than normal in an attempt for pity.

"**YES**! Wait…. **NO! But you are ****supposed to be dead!" She stomped.**

"Dead?"

"Yes, De-e-e-ead!" Renée jumped up and stamped her feet on the ground, forcing the word to come out with a rhythm.

"…Why would you want me dead?"

"Because I thought you were! Hey, when someone's shooting at you, you usually end up dead!"

"Heh, nah, not me," the cocky side of the teenage boy returned once the emergency was over; or at least he believed it to be. 

"So, why did you run away?"

"Run away?" she growled, "Run away?! Why the hell not! You're the one who dragged me into all that crap! I'm quite happy living here as a refugee, thank you very much! Or would that be a fugitive?!… alien?" Renée slowed down, the confusion causing calm to return to her. "Oh who cares…"

"Where are you living here?"

"Oh no, first **you** answer questions, jackass!"

"All of them?!"

"Some of them at least!"

"Ok……" he reluctantly agreed, not sure if he could remember them all, "Here goes. I got here on an airplane, since I had money from working. I found you by luck; you were with some cute blond chick, wandering around the hotel I am staying in and I shadowed you the rest of the day. By the way, you'll have to introduce me."

Renée's eyes seared through his own until there was a hole in his skull.

"Right, anyway, I 'stalked' you so I could talk to you alone - didn't mean to freak you out,"

"Well you did dumbass," she seethed, but quickly regained her composer, "But continue."

"I got here a few days back, I think I am the greatest male of this species on the earth, I never held out on you and after that I'm lost."

Renée stood there for a moment; an elegantly arched eyebrow examined her subject, and after an eternity, decided to let him pass.

"Fine, let us move on with our lives. One last thing, though; how in hell's great fiery name did you know I was actually in Japan?"

"Oh, that's easy," the boy boasted, "I saw the boat you ran onto, memorized the name and tracked it down using the records at the harbour."

Renée let her entire head slump, exasperated. "There just is no stopping you, is there?"

She didn't bother to look up at his smug grin and arms folded with pride, for she knew they'd be there. She gave a strange groan and half patted, half slapped him on the back.

"Fine, but try not to do anything to piss me off, because you'll need to pay me back for a long time after all this. Sorry about your hand dude. Let us move on. Get your stuff; I'm taking you to my new friends place. We can pretend you're homeless, too. It may be mooching, but I can't afford to lose track of you _once_ again. I might end up biting your finger off the next time you hunt me down."

The three artificial soldiers stood in a row; all of them clearly uncomfortable. The one of medium height and orange skin squirmed on the spot, shifting her weight and tapping her foot against the ground quietly. The shortest and the tallest ones flanked her, both of them just as upset, but partially because of another reason. The one of purple flesh scowled down to orange-girl, not daring a move, however, due to the situation they were in.

The yellow one looked up and did dare; when the squeamish nature of the middle one became unbearable, she slapped the wiggler upside the head and literally hissed as a sign to stop.

"That will be enough, Windfish," Urufu commanded, but in an extremely rare tone. It was quiet, sighed out, and almost flat; a voice after defeat or surrender would have sounded the same.

Despite the unusual atmosphere, the three straightened their posture and became perfectly still as he graced their presence.

"Do you know how long it took me to create you," the rhetorical question came out partially slurred by depression and substance abuse.

"Approximately 1,874 hours, Master!" Thunderbird, the creature in the middle barked out with the over-pep of a stereotypical cheerleader.

"Ugh," he grunted, not really wanting or expecting an answer. "You are surprisingly right, but there was no need to answer. It really doesn't matter anymore."

"But, Master, aren't we your greatest creations? Was it not worth it? We are great accomplishments of science!" Windfish put on a fanfare, trying to remind her creator of a greatness that would hopefully bring up his foul mood.

"You'd think that," he said, his back now turned on them. With his eagle-like gaze shifted from them for even the slightest moment, they all took the chance to shift their stance a bit.

"It doesn't really matter," he repeated, taking off his leather and tossing them aside.

"The clones aren't working out," he turned again, getting back to business. He paced the floor slowly. "We're taking the risk and sending you out next time."

Two of the three started to object, stammering over themselves and each other.

"But the clones are nearly the same strength!" Windfish pleaded.

"We might die!" Thunderbird whimpered, causing the other two to shoot a look of disgrace.

Urufu stopped, starring at Thunderbird for a short moment.  In face of his silence, the pause seemed like an eternity. Thunderbird had already begun to shrink in fear, preparing for the worse, but he said nothing. He pivoted and continued to send light tapping noises to echo off the walls of the enormous room.

It was the same room the monsters used for cloning, and the same room where he kept all his information. It was his room, his laboratory, and his equipment – so why did he feel like he was completely out of control at the moment? He knew why, he just didn't like the answer.

"You'll do fine. You are guaranteed a success – you are all going out together."

"What!" It was Shadowolf's turn to protest. She snapped out her rebuttal through her teeth, not expecting such an atrocity. It was very out of place for her to move, let alone speak.

"You're practically sisters, Shadowolf – its time you finally get along and work together."

"Ooh, ooh, me and Windfish already did that!" Thunderbird said as she bounced, to the horror of Windfish herself.

Urufu sent his glare of death to Windfish. "What do you mean by this, Thunderbird?" he drawled out slowly, looking at Windfish and knowing she was really responsible for anything.

"Me and Windfish went out to do better than Shadowolf – we didn't get the key, or kill anybody, but we did find the 'secret identity'" Thunderbird waved her fingers with delight as she announced those two words, "of two of the soldiers! Plus, we turned at least 3 of the soldiers against the big purple one!"

"So you went out without my permission?"

"Yeah! Well, no, wait….. Oh." Thunderbird slumped as the truth came to her, "Umm, better to ask for forgiveness that permission, right? Heh, heh heh…" She swallowed nervously, "Well, we did good! We got more information than grape face over there could ever rake up in her life time!"

"Yes," Windfish jutted in, hoping desperately this was a window of escape. "We did get new information and we did attempt to cause some chaos in their own rankings…"

"Would that explain the unfamiliar mutated part animal part girl record in the machine," Shadowolf asked coldly, breaking her code of silence. It seemed to be a bizarre day; besides Thunderbird, everyone was acting quite out of place. Shadowolf thought she might as well take the opportunity and get away with things she could not usually.

"Yep! We went into the morgue and found your latest failed clone. Windfish was smart enough to look for and **find a hair from that weird girl; since she killed you and all," the orange beast said with pride. "We used it in the cloning machine!"**

"You **what**!" Shadowolf pounced at the outrageous comment, wringing the neck of the wriggling monster. "They are there for a reason, idiot! One day we might be able to revive them and create an army! Tampering with them or **anything," she growled, knowing Thunderbird's nature all to well, "might ruin **everything**!"**

"Kah, You're the idiot – they're dead, which means they really sucked. KAH!" Thunderbird choked out, her attacker pressing even harder on her throat by the end of the sentence.

Urufu did nothing. He eased the pounding pain in his head by rubbing his right temple. He tried not to explode at his creations. They had to be well enough to go out and fight, and after all the work he put into them, he could not slaughter them himself. Although, he was beginning to change his mind – it would not be such a loss, especially now that he knew his creations had developed personalities on their own.

"We didn't harm your precious clones, Shadow," Windfish snorted, crossing her arms, "although I find Thunderbird is quite correct with her reasoning."

"Oh don't talk to me like that, you water-logged prick," Shadowolf tossed her victim aside, closing in on the yellow creature.

"**Enough**!!" was all Urufu had to say to cause them all to return to their original positions, terrified as usual. Whatever had changed his attitude before made no difference now, as he returned back to his commanding self.

"You are all working together next time to get the key. You'll most likely attract the Sailor Soldiers; you are going to kill them. No clones; that is the end of this discussion. Windfish and Thunderbird-"

The two nearly shrivelled at the demanding call of their names.

"Record that information somewhere immediately other than the regular tape. I don't want it lost among the other junk. However, no matter how successful your little escapade might have been, **never dare do it again."**

With that, he left the three to work amongst themselves - causing chaos to ensue.


	6. Part 6

Renée silently made her way up the many steps of Hikawa shrine, at last reunited with her partner in crime who now trailed behind her. His name was Lien, and he also came from her native country, good old, big and cold Canada. It was really strange for him to be here, almost surreal; she had separated her current life from her old one back home, and he existed solely in the old life. Her real life, as far as she was concerned, that she'd return to soon from this dream.

The night was dead, with no wind to make it uncomfortably cold. Noticing that every light was off, Renée became as still as the air.

"We can't go in," she whispered, as if she'd wake a beast if she talked any louder, "we'll have to go back to your hotel."

"But I just check out, stupid," he whispered back, "don't you think we'd look a bit dumb coming back in?"

"Well you can't sleep here!" She, now hoarsely, whispered back, "what am I supposed to tell Rei when both you and I appear from my room in the morning? 'Hey, Rei! This is just my friend from Canada I found last night! Now shake hands and be friends – 'cause he's staying here!'"

"Heh, well I wouldn't do that with you, but the blonde girl you were with is another story..."

Renée slowly caught on, her eyes narrowing at him. She wasn't sure weather to kill him now, or wait until she planned on where to dump the body.

"What's your problem?" He asked, shrugging awkwardly with the bag slung over his shoulder.

"Now's not the time for witty responses, Lien!" She barely whispered. "Not the best of times to be joking around at all!"

"Well, I didn't know it was _that_ time of the month,"

"I'm dead serious, Lien!"

"So are we!" A voice called from above, as a shot of fire hit the ground in between the two; barely missing Renée's flailing arm.

"What the fuck?!" Lien cried out in alarm, jolting back from where the attack had landed and completely forgetting the whispering rule.

Both looked up to where the attack had come from.

In the trees proudly stood four Sailor Soldiers, all clad in their own colours of war.

The one responsible for the flames leaped down to her prey, moving in for the kill ever so slowly.

"Well, I was expecting Godzilla, but this is much better," Lien perked up, trying to relieve the tension between them and the murderess; he was only trying to relate to her sense of humour in hopes of being spared.

Renée didn't take her eyes off the advancing warrior for one second, not even to scold Lien, for she knew there was no joking with Rei – something was terribly wrong. Rei looked as if she was readying to kill, but Renée stood her ground, confused and worried nonetheless.

Rei stopped three feet away from Renée, although her stance said to Renée that she'd pounce any minute. Renée's own body language suggested she was ready for flight at any given moment.

The other three followed the signal and leaped down in unison to join their present leader.

"Ummm..." Renée broke the silence with a very misplaced response and tone, "So, what's up?"

Rei just kept her eyes locked on Renée's in fury.

"Ok, so you aren't really in a good mood tonight. I guess we'll just be going in now-"Renée pivoted on her heel, but Rei caught her wrist; clenching it to the point of pain.

"Ok, what the hell is going on?!" Renée yelped, frustration and pain leaking into her voice as she wrenched her wrist from Rei's grasp, stumbling back.

Lien slowly moved behind her, not wanting to make any sudden movements among the gorgeous sorceresses. That one before his friend had shot fire, but she didn't even have a flamethrower.

Clearly Renée knew what was up, and he wanted to be responsible for nothing that went wrong.

"How **dare** you show your face back here," Rei finally spoke through her teeth, quietly, but her intent was clear. To strike fear in the heart of the being before her, for the pain that had turned to anger within her.

"Well, I was kinda living... here... please, Rei, what is going on? Why are you guys looking at me like that!" Renée demanded for answers. What had just happened? Why were they all angry? Was this a test? Was it a sick joke?

She had gone from a fun day of goofing off with Usagi to a horror-filled night of un-dead friends and angry allies.

What was going on?!

"What is going on?!" She demanded again. "Is this a joke? A dream?"

"You little bitch," Rei seethed, getting ruffled further by the way this traitor before her tried to deny everything. "You think you could have gotten away with it? Admit it now, so at least your conscience is clean when you die."

Renée's eyes widened for a quick moment; she was taken aback by the word 'die'. Sure, Rei had attacked and intimidated her, but actually hearing the word brought reality home.

"What did I do!!" Renée pleaded, going on the offence herself with such threats.

"How dare you deny it!!"

"I'm denying nothing!!"

"So you **did** do it, you are one of them!"

"I did nothing, I don't know what you are talking about! So tell be so I **can** deny!"

"Liar! You think I'm going to believe you over my friends!!"

Renée's stomach began to turn... had Rei found out she had lied about how she got to Japan? It made no sense! It didn't fit in with how Rei was accusing her, and it certainly wasn't a reason to die! However, the thought of her own guilt of something so simple was enough to cause a reaction Rei picked up on.

"How could you," Rei barely breathed the rhetorical question out. Renée's stare of confusion was once again misread as the silence of a guilty soul, signalling Rei to get her dirty work over with.

"Fire Soul!" Rei powered the attack up fast, giving both Renée and Lien little time to trip out of the way.

Lien hardly hit the ground before bounding back up and trying to make his escape into the woods. Unfortunately for him, there were three soldiers left with nothing to do, knowing it was best to leave their peer be to gain the vengeance she sought after. They soon picked up on what the mysterious newcomer was up to, not needing to give much chase before he was surrounded.

"Hello ladies," he smiled casually, his knuckles white while he wondered how to talk himself out of this one.

"Fire SOUL!" Rei drained herself a bit longer for the attack, wanting to get the evil creature killed as fast as possible. She was being fuelled by anger and pain, and had strength to spare.

That extra piece of time was essential for Renée's survival, since she had stumbled back up; only to be right in the path of the fire. It gave her a chance to roll out of the way – the flames missed her by inches. Her skin burned with the rush of singeing air brought by the searing pillar of flames Rei shot out at her.

Coming to a stop on one knee, Renée decided that being defensive had grown tiresome. Rei may never believe her innocent if she fought back, but she wasn't going to be beat around for a false accusation.

"Phoenix power, Make-up!" Renée shouted, gripping the stone bird around her neck. In a flash of cold silver, she was transformed once again into Sailor Kitty; someone she had thought would be a peer to the girl before her.

Rei's piercing gaze didn't waver.

Renée jumped into the air with a cry of effort; her powers, whatever they may be, allowed her to jump much higher and easier than usual. With a firm grip on her staff she brought it down directly onto Rei.

Rei easily dodged sideways, leaving the staff's heavy end to hit the ground with a clang.

Renée ducked the kick Rei swung at her, and blocked the following arm blow, locking their forearms against each other for a brief second.

Renée reacted by swinging her staff at Rei, trying to fend her off. It worked; Rei jumped backward, ducked, and step sideways a few times to avoid a thrust.

While retreating, Rei had managed to take out a scroll, and as if she were taunting Renée, she held it before her face after her last duck.

"Burning Mandela!" She shouted, whipping the fiery scroll at her opponent.

Renée jumped backwards instinctively, flipping in mid air naturally to be barely missed by the razor like paper and upward explosion of flames.

Renée had to shield her face right after landing the heat of the fire was so intense. Shaken up, she didn't move until the flames died in a burst of embers. She was too unprepared for all of this, there were too many close calls, her 'friend' was the one causing them, and she had just done an acrobatic feat she _knew_ she shouldn't be able to perform.

Rei took her hesitation as an opening; she kicked Renée across the face while in mid air, whipping her around to the ground.

Renée hit the dirt hard with a thump, her senses lost in action. She tried blinking rapidly, trying to regain her bearings – that's when she saw her staff had flown from her hand. On her stomach, she tried to reach it; just a few more inches were all she needed... but Rei's cries grabbed her attention first.

Rei had gracefully landed and twirled to face the one she had knocked down; victory was so close... this was almost over with...

"Fire!" Rei powered up for one last time. She stood at Renée's feet, daring Renée to reach for her staff with a flame at her fingertips.

_This is it, I'm done, literally done, _Renée thought, looking into the tiny flame before Rei. Having nothing to lose, she suddenly rolled to the side her staff was on. All she heard was "SOUL!" as she grabbed her staff, just in time to see a breath of fire run right through where she used to be.

Renée hopped up even as the flames were still pouring from Rei, and while they died she rammed her to-be assassin.

The fire soldier was tough, but nowhere near in size to the beast she fought. Rei was thrown hard onto her back, sliding across the ground even. Not wanting to give up that easily, she scrambled up; but only to be stopped dead in her tracks. Rei's charge ended abruptly before it began for the business end of Renée's staff. The 7-inch long dagger silently trembled dangerously close to Rei's neck.

It was Rei's turn to ponder her own mortality. Rei didn't dare move for what seemed like an eternity, knowing the steel could be plunged into her throat faster than anyone could evade the attack. The way it shivered was an enigma to Rei; did it mean Renée was silently chuckling, enjoying he warrior's last moments in fear? Or did it mean...

Rei didn't have time to think, for the eternity she experienced was really the mere milliseconds it took for Minako to realize the peril her friend was in.

"Venus Love Me Chain!" she rushed out quickly, whipping out a gold chain to Renée's staff. Minako yanked the threat from Renée's hands violently, barely missing the person she was trying to protect as the staff nearly flew back to her.

Renée held her right hand tenderly, the last act stirring up the old wound. Her expression remained the same, but now it was directed at Minako.

They broke her arm, they threatened her, they took her staff; it had been quite enough.

Rei jumped up from her crouched position, pouncing at Renée during her moment of silence, swinging her fist into Renée's face.

Renée may have been silent, but not unaware. Finally ripping her glare of hatred from Minako, she caught Rei's fist by the wrist and fell over backwards, planting her feet into Rei's abdomen in the mean time. Using the soldier's momentum against her, Renée kicked Rei hard off of her, flipping her over backwards into a tree.

Rei thwacked into the wood, dazed as she slid down to the ground, head first, along with the leaves shaken from the tree.

Rei finished with for the mean time, Renée rolled back up and wasted no time in charging Minako. Minako braced herself for the impact long before the monster hit her, charging up an attack for a nasty surprise; if that thing thought she could knock her over after making it so obvious, she had another thing coming.

The impact never came, though, as Renée flawlessly hopped over Minako, landing on the ground hands first, as a panther might. Snatching up her staff, she practically head butted Ami out of the way, clearing room for herself and Lien with her shoulder to get the hell out of there.

Just to be sure they left her friend be, though, Renée took a sharp turn for the temple, jumping onto the roof as Lien escaped into the forest. Doing as she hoped they might, they started attacking her. Makoto made her way onto the temple as well, while Ami sent another well-aimed wave of water. Renée was washed away with the water before she could do anything, rolling violently down the rest of the roof until she hit the ground with a thud.

Renée tried stumbling away, but Makoto took her own revenge by zapping her.

"Sparkling wide pressure!" she cried, nailing Renée with the projectile. Renée wailed in pain as she was thrown into the forest herself. She struggled to get up, but her entire body was aching and shaky. She managed to get up onto her knees, huffing as she looked behind her. There was Rei; giving her the coldest stare she'd ever seen. _That's it_, Renée gave up after a shiver went down her spine. She tried to shake off the eerie feeling Rei seemed to be giving off as she got up with great effort. Finally, Renée took off into the night, never looking back.

Renée had been running, non stop, for the past ten minutes. She ripped through the vegetation, crushing plants and barrelling through branches, only slowing her pace to stumbled over a dead log. She was sore, torn, bleeding and out of breath, her heart was pounding in her chest and soon her legs would give up as well. She kept running, though, since she was unable to think straight all she knew she could do was run.

A shadow suddenly jumped into her path, and unable to stop she slammed right into it.

"OOOWW!"

Renée staggered back up, holding out her hand for Lien, who had given the moan. When he was at last to his feet, he took a tantrum quite like Renée's earlier that night.

"What the **hell** is this?!"

"Pardon?"

"You! Them! But you! You're-"

"Yes, I have issues, I thought you'd already know that by now."

"No, stop messing with me, tell me what's going on!"

Renée snorted in satisfaction, "now you know what it feels like!"

"What? Oh, ok, fine! Just..." Lien heaved a sigh, unsure where to go from there.

"I'm suppose you are wondering why I look like the way I do?"

"Yes! Thank you!" Lien exclaimed with a toss of his hand, glad to be getting somewhere.

"Well, I don't know why."

Lien nearly fell over.

"I'll tell you how, calm down... I like, _transformed_ a while back by using this crest thing I found. I don't have it now because it changes into this staff whenever I use it."

"It _changes_?"

"Yeah, I don't know where these powers are coming from or what, but it's like the twilight zone or something. It gives me this uniform, and as you can see, changes the way I look too. That part's kinda disturbing, I'm sure you've already found that out..."

"Oh, no, it's just surprising," Lien turned his head away from her, lying.

"Heh, that's the same kind of tone Ami spoke to me with the first time she saw me..." Renée looked away herself now, feeling cold all of a sudden.

"Alright, what about les femmes fatale? Why are those girls trying to kill you?" Lien tried to get his friend back, afraid that if she stopped talking, she'd have a nervous breakdown.

Renée snorted again. "I am one of them, ...or _used_ to be," she mumbled, rubbing her nose. It was getting really cold; her nose was probably red by then.

"When I found that _thing_," she mentioned the crest as a detestable object, "I found out my... friends... that I met here... they could change, too. They've been changing to use powers against, like, monsters, long before I got here. When I changed, it was different, so I was never really one of them when they were fighting. I felt like a fake. I had no powers to fight with, my uniform, if you can call it that," she tugged at the fabric of her bodice, "was different. Like this silver part? It's supposed to be white and sleek, but unlike the others, mine's all stiff, like it was made of friggin' steel wool. Kinda scratchy," she forced a chuckle, but Lien didn't buy it.

"Anyway, worst of all, my hair changed, and I got... _cat_ parts. Even though I look like them, they have no idea who, or what, I am. They all have a long history together, and an explanation for why they have powers and can change. I... I don't. I just look like them."

Renée bowed her head, seemingly exsausted. Lien dared another question, but not without a long pause, deciding whether or not it was right to bother her any more.

"Why are they... why are they after you? Is it because you are different?"

Renée closed her eyes for a moment, trying to keep what little control she had left under power. Finally, without lifting her head, she gave her anticipated response.

"I don't know. This wasn't supposed to happen. I though they were my friends, that I was fighting along with them. But... well, this is all new. I've never seen them act like that toward me."

Renée was about to sit down, but Lien grabbed her hand before she could.

"If you can, undo the change thing. We're getting the hell out of here."

"What? Now? But, all my stuff..." Renée looked back, answering her own question about her few possessions. It was hopeless.

Lien scanned the dark woods a bit, finding something close in the sticks. He didn't have to pick his way through much shrubbery to reclaim what he was looking for.

"All we need is money, and I have that," he tried to reassure her as he retrieved his bag, not realizing she had already given up. It must have flown from his grasp when she had run into him.

"We're getting the hell out of here," he repeated, grabbing her arm and dragging her onward into the forest.

"What? Do you even know where you are going?" she resisted his tug slightly; slowing him down enough to scoop up her staff from the grass.

"I can swear I saw a skyscraper a while back in this direction. We're finding the nearest road, then going back to the airport."

"The airport?"

Lien would have given her a hard time for her being clueless, but he remained silent – he was sure his teasing was the last thing she needed now. Neither of them needed it.

Renée rested her head against the glass during the dreary bus ride. Lien seemed to know where he was going, or at least acted like it; his ego was always getting them into trouble. He had pulled her onto the bus, trying to retrace his steps. Renée hadn't been forced on, but she hadn't given total cooperation, either. She didn't even care that Lien was doing all the thinking, talking, and even moving for the two of them; she was in no state to do any of those herself.

A heavy heart hung in her chest, although she wasn't totally sure why. Shouldn't she be happy, or at least relieved, to be leaving the foreign country? To have regained her best friend? To be getting away from the people after her? Something just wasn't right, though, but she didn't know what. She decided it must be because of what the people she had met here had done to her. Even though it was quite a disturbing fact to have them totally turn on her for no reason, she knew that wasn't the only factor... she just couldn't put her finger on it.

Was it the fact that the questions about the mysterious powers she had received, the voice she heard and even the monsters that had been appearing would never be answered? Maybe it was the thought of the monsters running loose around the Japanese town with her able to do nothing to stop it that was unsettling. Or maybe it was that she had no home; even though she missed her country, bad things had happened there, too, and it appeared she belonged nowhere. No one wanted her except the fellow rat next to her.

She remained motionless against the glass, physically and emotionally drained. All she seemed to have the energy for was breathing, and even Lien wasn't sure she'd be able to keep that up.

Watching the people roll by, she spotted a familiar head of hair coming up. As they got closer, Renée saw it was Usagi, wandering down the streets all alone. Before Renée could react, they had already passed her.

"Ding, ding ding, din-din-din-ding;" the bus signal went as Renée yanked on the rope desperately, not letting up until the bus driver stopped completely.

"Whats going on?" Lien asked, surprised his friend was up on her feet and jumpy as ever. Renée turned the tables, as now she dragged him around. The bus driver let them off right there, but not without a dirty look.

"Usagi! Usagi!" Renée cried after her, nearly desperate, as if Usagi was her only hope.

"USAGI!"

At last the bunny girl heard someone calling and turned around.

"Renée! What are you doing here? Oh, who's this?" she titled her head innocently with the question, noticing the poor boy who was in Renée's clutches.

"Oh, this is Lien. Lien, Usagi," she breathlessly introduced the two, trying to be polite but not really succeeding. "Usagi, what's going on?!"

"What? What's the matter?"

"You... you don't know?" Renée said lightly, a huge weight removed off her heart.

"What? Something wrong? I wouldn't know, I lost my communicator yesterday and I was actually just looking for Luna-"Usagi realized the subject matter may not be appropriate for the stranger and stopped abruptly.

"Oh, if you're worried about him, don't worry, he knows everything. He got caught up in the action..."

"What happened?" Usagi pleaded for an answer as she grabbed Renée by the arm, pulling the two into the nearest ally.

"They attacked _us_, Usagi-chan. I don't know what's going on, but they're out to kill me. Especially Rei!"

"Oh my goodness, they think you're the enemy! This is all just a huge misunderstanding! I wonder why Rei changed her mind?"

"Well I figured out the hard way they think I'm the enemy, what I want to know is why!"

"It's hard to explain, Renée-chan, but we better go back to the temple and fix things right away!"

The unusually silent Lien couldn't take it anymore.

"Oh no! Hell no! I'm not going back there!" he spoke in Usagi's native tongue, much better than Renée had.

"But we have to! The sooner we fix things the better! Besides, you're with me, and they have to trust me!"

With the last word, Usagi led the way out of the dark alley and back to the nearest bus stop, determined to put an end to this ridiculous battle.

Renée stood behind Usagi, towering over her. She felt like she was using Usagi as a human shield, which was weird since she was only half her height, and besides, wasn't she supposed to be the one _protecting_ Usagi? However, it felt great to have Usagi on her side – she was so relieved that Usagi wasn't against her. Of all the soldiers Renée would want rooting for her, it had to be Usagi.

The bus they rode on back to the temple was the same one they had rode there; Renée recognized the bus driver, and he recognized them with a nasty look. However, the atmosphere was totally different; now Renée was jumpy: anxious and jittery about trying to face the others again. She prayed that things would go smoother, since despite the bad guys, she was actually having a good time with Rei and her friends. Or, she had been...

The silent trio sat on a seat parallel with the bus, facing the aisle and empty seat across from them while getting a good view of the night scenery.

"So, Usagi's your name? That's very pretty," Lien began the small talk with the blonde on the other side of Renée, speaking over Renée's back like a table, as she was using her knees as arm rests, her chin firmly held between her hands. Renée picked up on the familiar tone and gave him a well-deserved hoof in the ankle, causing Lien to back off accordingly after Usagi thanked him with a smile.

Once the threat was over with, Renée turned Lien with a glare that could prevent him from ever talking to a girl again.

"She has a boyfriend," she pronounced the words hard in English, quietly but clear, and fast enough that Renée was sure Usagi didn't pick up what she said.

Lien sunk into his seat, embarrassed and a little annoyed that Renée had assumed so quickly that his intentions were anything but innocent.

"I've known you way too long," he muttered.

"That's your own problem," she said emotionlessly, her eyes glazed over in thought with her mind somewhere else as she stared at the empty seat opposite to her.

"You're damn right it is," he continued, "I should end it all by throwing you at the back, right now."

"Is that a threat?" she finally reacted, but barely so.

"No, of course not," Lien sarcastically denied. "I could easily leave this country without you, ya know," Lien snuffed his nose at her, but she just rolled her eyes and went back to her useless worrying.

Lien sighed and turned slightly away, deciding that he may as well abandon the idea of trying to joke with the bundle of nerves next to him. She had changed since he had last seen her; he hoped it wasn't permanent.

Usagi herself was thinking deeply about what to say to the girls, or else she would have been the one to start the conversation with Lien. She looked down at Renée, who seemed to be in a trance. _Poor Renée_, she thought, _must feel awful to have your friends attack you like that_.

She considered trying to cheer her up, but it seemed best to let the zombie be. Usagi sighed and went back to thinking about what may happen and how to handle it.

Renée's silent concentration was abruptly shattered when two fairly short, unnatural creatures burst through the windows. Renée smashed her head against the side as the bus mimicked the driver's terrified reaction, careening dangerously to the left while glass flew everywhere.

The bus came to a screeching halt, bumping a few parked cars before lurching back and giving everyone but one of the monsters whip lash.

Thunderbird was thrown back hard, landing on the dirty bus floor with her butt.

"Oh, c'mon, learn to DRIVE buddy!" she moaned, looking to Windfish for some help getting up. Windfish just turned away, scanning their territory.

Receiving no recognition whatsoever, Thunderbird got up with a grunt and a scowl.

Usagi had two heavy people pinned against her, since Renée had rammed into her, and Lien rammed into Renée. Although in pain and with a bad reputation of being a ditz behind her, even she was able to realize who was standing before them.

Windfish rolled her main weapon between her hands for a few moments, deciding what to do next. As an answer to her own question, she whipped the ball into the driver, who had gotten up and was frozen in fear at what he had found. He went through the windshield, landing on a car hood below before sliding to the pavement.

With a smile, Windfish went to hijack the bus, but Thunderbird had jumped over the driver's seat, or more accurately, tripped, and was there before Windfish could say a word.

"What are you doing?!"

"I'm driving!"

"Oh no you don't," Windfish threatened.

"Well, I hate the plan. I wanna drive. You can check all the passengers for the key, _I_ wanna drive! Besides, if we are trying to get the Sailor's attention, wouldn't a bad driver be better than a careful one? I know that you'd be going like a turtle through the streets-"

"Alright alright! Drive already!" Windfish gave in, crossing her arms and preparing to make a fool out of Thunderbird. The idiot was bound to mess something up, and Windfish would be there to laugh in her face before pushing her out of the way.

Surprisingly enough, Thunderbird gracefully handled the controls; first reversing the bus, then shifting it back into drive without missing a beat. Windfish just stood in awe, until Thunderbird purposely jerked it into high gear, taking off down the road as if it were oblivious to everything it hit.

Windfish was tossed back like a ragdoll, unprepared for Thunderbird's actions. She regained her balance during the high-speed ride, turning to her victims to search for the key. But the bus was empty!

"What the-!"

Moments earlier, Usagi had elbowed Renée off of her as the bus driver got his just deserts; or so Renée thought at least. Usagi was horrified, but in whispers Renée reminded Usagi that she could do nothing for him at that point. As quietly as they could, they made their way out the emergency door in the back. Another passenger had opened it, right after the bus had crashed, with enough care that it hadn't made a sound louder than a mouse. As the two deformities bickered at the front, all the passengers were ushered out save Renée, who in the nick of time had remembered to grab the dumbstruck Lien, frozen in his seat.

As soon as everyone hit the pavement they ran in separate directions, scattering like bugs. Then the bus took off into the night, leaving destruction in its wake.

The trio just stood there in the exhaust fumes.

"What was..." Lien trailed off, blinking in disbelief.

"You've got to learn how to move faster, there, Li," Renée criticized, folding her arms.

"C'mon, we have to stop them!" Usagi cried, bolting after the bus. There was no way she was letting those things hurt anymore people!

Suddenly, Usagi was brought to a halt, with a hand gripped to her wrist for dear life. With a questioning look on her face, Usagi turned to face Renée, butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

"Usagi, we shouldn't right now," Renée almost whispered, unsure herself as to why she was so aggressive in stopping the princess. She knew she couldn't allow Usagi to go after those deadly things, though; she just couldn't.

"But they will hurt others! Come on!"

Renée looked around to justify her action, not loosening her vice grip one bit.

"We can't 'change' here..." the lame excuse was barely audible under her breath.

Usagi sensed Renée's uncertainty, but whatever she was up to she was dead serious about.

"Ok..." Usagi decided, trusting her – she would have answered the same thing anyway even if Renée hadn't had a ferocious hold on her arm.

Their minds made up, the three dashed in the opposite direction.

Thunderbird tore through the streets, screaming in delight as she ploughed things out of her way. A mailbox, some cars, and almost a person or 3; they were a lot harder to hit than anything else.

Stupid humans, they were no fun.

Windfish, on the other hand, had never held on to something as tightly as she did now. Her hands and arms were burning as she gripped the seat in front of her, but she didn't dare move. Terrified and pinned to the spot by Thunderbird's reckless driving, she was afraid she'd fly out the open emergency exit if she dared try to sit.

After an eternity, Thunderbird let out one last whoop before slamming the brakes, causing the ground to come up and smack Windfish in the face.

"Found them!" Thunderbird cried, her arms thrown up. Windfish stumbled to a stand and then to her co-worker, peering into the headlights where four colourfully dressed girls stood. The blonde in the middle had her hand outstretched, as if she had been the one to command the bus to a halt.

"You big fat idiot, why didn't you just run them over!!"

"What?"

"Your joyride's over jerks!" The blonde commanded.

"Oh?" Windfish grimaced, elegantly leaping out the broken windshield to meet her adversaries. Thunderbird soon followed, lacking the grace her predecessor had.

"You don't stand a chance," Makoto gloated, "Four against two. You guys may as well give up now!"

"Ah, but that's where you are wrong," Windfish smirked, "there may only be two of us, but-"

"We're the real deal!" Thunderbird enthusiastically shouted, causing Windfish to roll her eyes.

The Sailor Senshi took fighting poses, preparing to attack with a most ferocious force, expecting to take the loons in front of them out with one hit. Windfish could only chuckle.

"You don't get it, do you? We aren't those weak clones you faced before. Do not underestimate us," Windfish paused to relish in the thought of her enemies giving in, caving in fear to her awesome powers. "Surrender now to us, and we may spare you lives."

"Yeah right," Makoto snapped, waiting for her cue to devastate the little monkey. It was the yellow one that had caught them off guard in the beginning and had brutalized herself and her friends, so it was she that would be torn apart.

"You asked for it," Windfish sighed, raising her ball over her head. The outer layer began to glow a weak blue.

"I'm sure you remember this trick. But now that I'm here in the flesh, I can do much more."

"Venus Love-Me Chain!" Minako bellowed, snapping out her golden chain with incredible force. Windfish had to abandon her weapon, completely taken off guard, as she jumped to the side.

Thunderbird retaliated, becoming a lot more useful than Windfish would have guessed. She slammed her own ball into the ground, causing a wave of electricity to hurtle from the ground towards the girls. All of them smacked into the ground, their legs knocked out from underneath them.

Given the opportunity, Windfish reclaimed her ball, causing the glow to come back. The messenger of ice called upon the wind she commanded to deliver her blow by volleying the ball into the air. The blue glow became more defined as a rumble reached their ears. Minako could have sworn the ground was shaking when the blue glow ceased, the ball calmly dropping back into the monster's hands.

Suddenly an icy wind ripped through the street, preventing anyone from getting back up. Bits of hail tore into their skin as they were blinded by a flurry of snow, and their uniforms weren't helping much. Minako had had enough.

"Girls! Come follow me!" She shouted, disappearing into the oblivion. The three remaining followed her, running into the wind.

"She had better have a good idea," Rei groaned, trying to go as fast as she could.

"Trust her!" Ami tried to say, but her voice was lost in the wind.

Without warning a loud thud followed by a blow had Ami on her back with a cry of pain. All she could see was a dark figure holding a glowing red ball over her, and all she could do was shut her eyes as she prepared for the end.

"Oh no you don't!" cried another, larger figure as it rammed into the first one.

"Ami, are you all right?" asked the taller one, standing over the unconscious body of the first.

"Makoto! I thought you we in front of me!" Ami shouted over the wind as she got up.

"No, I was following you!"

"This is so confusing! Look out!" Ami cried out too late, and Makoto was kicked hard right in the side of the knee.

"Makoto!!" Ami gasped and darted behind the monster as she called out her spell, her friend bellowing in pain from the hit.

"SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!" she whipped her arms out towards her enemy, now that her back was to the wind. Just as she had planned her massive wave of water, fuelled by her disgust hit Thunderbird and froze nearly on contact, leaving the little orange monster on the ground with her arms in an unnatural position.

"Nice shot Mercury," Makoto weakly spoke into the wind, her voice being carried away, "she's not getting back up again."

"Are you alright?" Ami asked as she rushed to her friend's side.

"Yeah," Makoto said with aggressiveness back in her voice, "I'm perfectly fine. Now how are we going to find the other two?!"

It felt like they were alone in the arctic desert, as it seemed to stretch on forever. The wind stung, and with all they had on it wouldn't be long before they were in deeper trouble. Although Ami knew they were only on a street, she felt lost in an abyss.

"Give me a second, I'll have this figured out in no time!"

"How can we attack if we can't find the others?!" Rei asked after she had found out Minako's plan. They were both going to attack at the same time into the wind, sweeping the street by using the monster's own attack against them.

"I thought they followed us!"

"Lost?!" Widnfish yelled with a sneer, cutting through the wind effortlessly. She hoped over the girls so the wind was at her back, ensuring her safety. "It's a bit cold today, isn't it?"

The monster twirled and turned her ball completely into a blue orb of energy. "Remember this attack?! No, you wouldn't because you two were too unconscious to remember! I never got to finish it then, but now that I'm more powerful, it's a breeze!"

She thrust her arms out, sending a jet of snow into her two targets. They slid across the ground, coated in a dense layer of the white stuff. They broke through the icy barrier and struggled back to their feet, but Windfish only powered up again during the wait. They slammed into the ground and slid even further this time, allowing her to smirk at the fact that her predictions had come true. The fools had underestimated her, and would soon be begging for mercy she would not give.

Ami surveyed the area, her computer and visor working over time. They beeped and hummed louder than usual, possibly struggling against the cold just like her. Her fingers were numb as they ran across the keys, sometimes missing their intended targets.

"We won't last much longer like this," she worried as she did another sweep of her surroundings.

And there they were.

Two bright humanistic forms appeared on the tiny screen, staggering to their feet. Ami had no doubt that the heat signatures she was picking up belonged to Rei and Minako, but where was the monsters?

Ami shifted to her right, where she found something very peculiar. There was a smaller form, but it was coming up as cold. _Freezing_ cold, colder than all it's surroundings; this creature had no warmth in it at all.

"But... how does it survive?"  
"Found something?"

"Yeah, they are in that direction, but careful!" Ami had to warn her eager friend, "the monster's right there, it'll attack you too."

"Then let's just get behind it-"

Makoto couldn't help but stop mid-sentence, as the wind had just quit itself halfway through a strong burst. Everything had just seemed to die, leaving a bright, silent street where everything was covered in snow. Several inches of ice crystals glimmered under the streetlights, giving them an almost peaceful look. It'd be pretty, if it weren't for the circumstances.

Windfish stood before them, breathless but ready for more. She laughed when she saw how blue they all looked.

Ami's computer and visor were already gone, her hands clenched into fists. It appeared as if her three friends also had the same idea, as they were all beginning to tense their muscles even more than before.

Four different voices filled the air with different shouts, causing Windfish's smug look to wash away quickly. Simply attacking all this time tired her; she was expecting they'd be exhausted after all that.

She jerked her ball out in front of her as a defence, powering up to try and soften the blow, but it was no use. She had nowhere to dodge and nothing between her and the bright colours that seem to fly at her all at once. She felt her footing slip away, the sharp pain of the individual attacks, and she was gone.

"Well that was easy," Makoto panted, raising herself to her full height once again.

"Where's the other one?" Rei asked.

"We took care of her," Makoto winked.

As if on cue, the cracking of ice rang through the deserted street, followed by a soft popping noise as a hand punched through the snow. What was once a short hill in the street became a frozen looking Thunderbird, who was facing away from them and had not noticed their presence.

"Stupid Windfish," she muttered as she shook the snow off like a dog. "Why don't you just abandon me at the north pole?!" Idiot – OW!" She tenderly grabbed for her shoulder. It was radiating pain, and may have been dislocated for all she knew.

"Alright creep," Makoto snarled as she grabbed Thunderbird's collar from behind, lifting her out of the snow and off the ground. Thunderbird was small, but not that small. Makoto nearly dropped her due to the surprising weight, but instead threw her to the side, trying not to show weakness. Makoto's plan worked out quite well, as the Thunderbird landed dangerously near a car, slid the last foot too quickly to control herself and smacked her head off the side.

"Owwww," Thunderbird groaned, and Makoto caught herself feeling sorry for what she had done, but only for a very short second.

Thunderbird finally figured out that something important was missing, as her head wavered side to side on her shoulders.

"Windfish?!" she spurted in panic, rising to her knees. "_Windfish_!?"

"That's far enough, missy," Venus said, brandishing her golden whip with a threat. Thunderbird shrunk back to the ground, making no attempt to hide her fear.

"You killed her, didn't you," she said rather than asked, speaking in little more than a whisper.

The four girls were silent, unsure of what to say. They were dumbstruck at the way she was acting, and were worried she'd catch them off guard.

Thunderbird made to dart off, but Minako was quicker with her chain. Thunderbird winced at the metal wrapped around her bad arm as she tripped to the ground. Leering with clenched teeth, she grppied the whip in her hand and sent a bolt of electricity up it. Minako reared back, holding her hand, as Thunderbird weaseled out of the chain. She tried to dash away, but she just tripped into the snow. Face first on the ground, she sighed in defeat.

"Give it up, Thunderbird," Minako said in a very superhero-like tone.

"What do we do with her now," Makoto whispered out the side of her mouth to Minako, "we've never actually caught a monster before."

"I- don't really know, I'm working on-"

"Fine," Thunderbird interrupted them, "I can't do the job I was sent for. I'm going to die either way." She sat up, backhanding her ball away. "You've got me, know what will you do?"

"Err, well, it's a surprise," Minako tried to stall. No one noticed Thunderbird's ball stealthily position itself behind Makoto.

"Fine. If I can't kill you, at least I can get another job _done_," Thunderbird said through clenched teeth, and in unison to her last word she slammed her fist into the ground.

Makoto gasped as the ball went right through her. She arched her back with the force of the ball, and was nearly lifted off the ground. It happened in a split second, though it felt like forever. When it had finally left her, she collapsed to the ground, feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of her.

The ball did the same to Ami and Rei, bouncing off a wall and pushing Ami back, while rebounding off the street and passing through Rei. Minako was the only one who had time to duck. The ball flew down the street, and Thunderbird was too drained to do anything about it.

"You're quick, blondie, too quick," Thunderbird growled.

"What did you just do!!" she demanded from Thunderbird, seeing her friends doubled over and struggling to breathe.

"None of them have the key." Thunderbird simply stated, slightly disappointed.

Minako was disturbed by the creature's relaxed attitude. She pooled her energy and prepared to attack one last time.

Seeing that Minako was about to blast her off the face of the planet, Thunderbird used the last of her strength and her talent for speed to leap up and bolt toward Minako. Hooking her arm at the last moment, she brought Minako and herself to the street, sending Venus' meteor shower off into the sky.

"Please," Thunderbird asked desperately in the same panicky voice as before. Knowing all her chances to escape or attack where up, she knew this was her only hope.

"Please don't kill me. I'll help you! I'll tell you anything! They don't care about me!" Thudnerbird spat quickly yet quietly, trying to get Sailor Venus to understand. Minako nodded vigorously to the babbling girl, trying to get her to slow down.

"I know where Shadowolf is and where our Master is, I'm willing to help!" she scrambled up. Sirens were wailing from every direction now, as Minako's attack in the sky had drawn the police's attention at last.

"I can barely hear you," she shouted to Thunderbird as she jumped up. She looked from side to side, trying to decide which way the police would come. Thunderbird latched onto her arm, terrified.

"Shadowolf is the last one like you?" Minako tried to speak quickly over the noise while holding Thunderbird at a distance. The faster she spoke, maybe the faster she could get this over with?

"Yeah, she's attacking your two friends, I can like, sense it," the monster, still with panic in her voice, was speaking even faster than Minako was.

"_Two_ friends?" Minako was stumped; her brain couldn't keep up with the speed at which words bubbled from the thing's mouth.

"Yeah, the Moon and Cougar girls. They're five blocks north of here. I can help fight her, you know, I know her weaknesses-"

"Mars Fire SOUL!" Rei shot the pillar with expert aiming into the monster, snapping her away from Minako. The fire disappeared with a final flash, leaving Thunderbird sprawled across the snow with a fatal wound in her side that left a train of crimson.

Rei collapsed back into the snow. "Minako, are you alright?"

"MARS! No! She was trying to help us!"

Rei stared back at her angry friend questionly. "What?!"

"She wasn't attacking me!"

Suddenly two police cars turned sharply onto the road, and the four warriors took to the rooftops.

Usagi sat alone in the middle of the street, her legs folded under her and her head limp as if she had slumped from weariness into that position and had remained. She was crying quietly to herself, confused, upset and just overwhelmed at what had happened that day.

At last running footsteps broke the silence of the darkened city road, and Usagi stood up to meet who was there. It was Tuxedo Mask, and as soon as Usagi recognized whom it was she ran right into him, hugging him tightly as her eyes spilled over with fresh tears.

"Usagi, what's wrong? I came as soon as I could. I'm sorry I hadn't felt that something was wrong sooner. Are you ok?"

"Oh, Mamoru," was all she could say, sobbing even harder now. Mamoru just rubbed her back, knowing she couldn't speak properly at the moment.

"Sailor Moon," Minako asked, landing behind her. The four girls appeared to have come out of nowhere. "Usagi, what's the matter?"

Rei surveyed the area, deciding something big must have just happened. It seemed to Rei as if everything that could be broken had been, as there was busted glass, what seemed to be brick and even blood everywhere. A particularly large and dark stain behind Usagi and Mamoru caused her heart to sink to where her stomach was.

Usagi turned her head out to the side from where it had been buried in Mamoru's chest.

"They're gone. They're all gone."


	7. Part 7

Running. It seemed as if that was all they had been doing for ages. Usagi was tired of following Renée and her friend, and she ached to go catch those monsters before they did something truly terrible.

"Renée, stop!" she called between breaths, letting her pace drop from a run to a crawl, dragging her feet behind her. At last the girl she was pursuing let up, turning suddenly to answer Usagi's call.

"C'mon, we have to do something about those two. We can go behind that building, through that alleyway. No one will see-"

"But-" Renée tried to interrupt Usagi, but gave up after the word left her mouth. Why was she objecting? She wanted those monsters dead too, so why couldn't she let Usagi and herself go after them?

Lien stood off to the side, tired and alone. All he had done was come to find Renée, and somehow had gotten caught in a paranormal war. He sighed, catching Renée's attention for a moment.

Usagi was just about to use the distraction to dart off into the alley alone, when a loud crack made all their heads turn. It had come from just around the corner, and it was the sound of wood against something just as hard.

The trio rushed to the source, peering around the crowded corner carefully, catching a glimpse through the people of an attack of yet another monster. Shadowolf, a creature they had defeated before, stood there in all her glory with a smirk on her face. Her gleaming purple skin and acid green hair contrasting the dark street made her an even greater presence than she had been the first time.

A young man with all his muscles tensed stood in front of her, preparing to swing the bat in his hand again.

The street had emptied quickly; with a few cries here and there people scrambled to escape the terror. A few had even abandoned their cars on the previously quiet road. There were some brave bystanders that remained at a safe distance, like the group of teens in front of Usagi and her gang, afraid yet curious enough to hang out at the edges of the danger. The man that was in the middle of a showdown with Shadowolf would soon cause the rest to scatter. He swung the bat at Shadowolf again with considerable force, Renée credited him with, but she crushed his dreams of heroism by simply raising her arm and taking the blow with her forearm. The man's eyes grew wide once he registered what had happened, and Renée assumed the last noise they had heard must have been him missing, if he hadn't realized by now he couldn't hurt her. Shadowolf grabbed the baseball bat and in one swift movement, flung it over her head with the man still clamped to the other end. Renée couldn't help but wince as the man's back hit the pavement with a horrible noise.

Usagi had had enough. Before she was even sure that everyone had cleared out, she carelessly transformed then and there.

"Usagi no!" Renée gasped as she heard the transformation phrase leave Usagi's mouth. She followed the princess' rash actions, her mind conjuring thoughts of Usagi being brutalized like the innocent man.

As soon as Sailor Moon was ready to go, she tried to dive into the fight, but Sailor Kitty's staff swung out in front of her face, preventing her from going any farther.

"I've got this one, Sailor Moon," Renée fumed, and she dashed towards Shadowolf before she could do another thing to the unconscious hero.

Shadowolf stood in a strong stance, her back to Sailor Kitty as she bounced her ball. She was busy judging the distance between herself and a couple of boys who were on the run. They were over 100 meters away, easily, but she could nail them. May as well check them for the key before checking the harmless human who lay near her. He wasn't going anywhere.

Suddenly she heard the thudding of boots against pavement, and just in time she turned to witness Sailor Kitty leap forward, her dagger-like staff brandished right at her.

She leaped to the side, tripping over herself in her rush as she heard the clink of Sailor Kitty's dagger being thrust into the cement. Her enemy wasted no time in coming at her again.

Sailor Moon cautiously stepped out onto the battlefield, becoming bolder as she saw Sailor Kitty take her first swing at the purple deformity. She had to get that innocent man out of there, but if Shadowolf saw she'd be endangering both herself and the man.

Lien was soon by her side, understanding her goal without a word. It seemed like it took an eternity to reach him, but once Lien had the man by the shoulders, Usagi picked up the rest of the weight by grabbing his legs and the two returned by the way they came twice as fast. Finally around the corner, Usagi heaved a sigh of relief as she less than carefully let her burden fall back to the ground. However, her worries renewed as soon as they had loosened their grip, for her friend was still caught in battle down the road. She sorely wanted to help, but it was impossible – the battle was too chaotic. If she ran in now, either combatant could hit her; but if she attempted to help from a distance, she may only make things worse. If she didn't hit the monster, she could still draw attention to herself, but that would only give Shadowolf an opportunity to hit Lien. She struggled with what to do next, but all she could come to was to wait.

Sailor Kitty was relentless; even the great Shadowolf was having trouble keeping up. The monster danced this way and that, dodging the deadly touch of Sailor Kitty's staff every time. No matter how far Shadowolf managed to jump or dash away, surprisingly Sailor Kitty was right behind her. The combination of her powers and her determination, Renée assumed, was giving her the strength to do so. The silver-clad soldier managed to chase Shadowolf off far enough down the street that Usagi and Lien were able to drag the stranger to safety. Renée stole a glace at them as they dashed out of sight rounding the corner, giving Shadowolf a split second to send her weapon spinning in her direction.

Sailor Kitty ducked, allowing the ball to pass over her and bounce off the nearest wall to rebound at her. In defence, she swung the heavy end of her staff down into the ball, barely catching it at the end and slamming it into the ground.

A high-pitched hiss escaped from the ball, stopping both warriors in their tracks.

Renée watched as the deadly weapon deflated slowly under her staff; eyebrows arched as the terrifying object sunk into the ground. She had intended to send it away, not kill it.

"AH!" Shadowolf choked in surprise. Dumbfounded, all she could do was watch, wide-eyed as her lifeline flattened before her eyes.

"I didn't know it could be stopped so easily," Renée honestly puzzled as she lifted the sack of leather that was still hooked on one of the sharp talons of her staff. It was surprising to see something that was once used for so much destruction end in such a stupid way.

Shadowolf just screamed her fury as she came to her senses, clenching her fists as she trembled with rage. She lunged blindly at Sailor Kitty, but was too far away. Renée just sidestepped out of harms way, leaving Shadowolf only empty air to stop her head forward plunge.

The creature skilfully somersaulted on the ground, stopping on her toes. On her feet again, she was about to dodge another assault from Sailor Kitty when she spied something useful in the distance. With a hop she was up and running.

"Oh crap," Renée swore in English as she realized too late what the thing had dashed for.

Shadowolf picked up the bat the first fighter had left behind. "Alright freak show," She said without turning around to face Sailor Kitty tensing up a bit before she swung it against the lamppost it had been abandoned near. The metal reverberated a deep tone with the incredible force Shadowolf used. "Now it's fair!"

"Me, freak show?" Sailor Kitty chuckled to hide her fear, and Shadowolf pumped her legs to come at her with terrific speed. Sailor Kitty gracefully leaped to the side, a mile away from where the bat hit. "Look at yourself! You are hardly real!"

Shadowolf only grunted with the next set of blows she tried to deliver. Belittling the creature seemed to work, as she was attacking with all her power and no control. This just may be an easy kill!

Twisting and turning, Sailor Kitty almost wanted to smile as she just swayed out of Shadowolf's reach every time. She only brought her staff up to block a particularly ferocious blow. As they remained locked, Shadowolf pressed harder and harder down on Sailor Kitty's staff, growling in her effort. Sailor Kitty nearly laughed, unsure of what Shadowolf was trying to achieve.

Regrettably, Shadowolf then snapped out of whatever crazed trance she had been in, seeing the glint of joy in Sailor Kitty's eyes. With lightning speed she turned away and shattered the bat against the pavement, sending splinters of wood everywhere and busting it in half. Before Sailor Kitty even had a chance to shield her eyes, Shadowolf stabbed her in the most vulnerable spot she could find, her thigh, with her makeshift sword.

Sailor Kitty could hardly give a grunt of pain before Shadowolf had retracted her arm to bring about a swinging blow to her head. Sailor Kitty ducked, but felt the wood graze her head.

Shadowolf, to everyone's surprised, retreated after that, breathing heavily. She took a few steps back and tossed the bat away with a sneer, throwing her outstretched palm out into Sailor Kitty's direction. The injured soldier looked up, the palm of the violet hand right under Shadowolf's eyes.

"I win," she jeered and blasted Sailor Kitty square in the chest with what appeared to be a burst of black wind. The shadow energy formed a whirlwind that shoved Sailor Kitty hard in the chest, knocking her off her feet and leaving her skidding on her back across the pavement, now far from Shadowolf.

"THAT'S IT!" Sailor Moon shouted, her sceptre pointed right at Shadowolf. The monster simply chuckled at the sound of the angry princess behind her.

"Not this time, princessss", she hissed the last syllable over her shoulder as she conjured more shadow around her right wrist. It obscured the fist she made, and before Usagi had any time to react, she forced her hand into the ground.

A dark line of shadow forced it's way through the cement, shaking the earth so violently that the windows of the surrounding buildings shattered from the tremors.

Sailor Moon braced herself to jump out of its way, but the line broke up and cracked the street into islands, with some sinking lower than others without enough support.

The one Sailor Moon occupied began to crack into so many pieces it looked like the ground was turning to snakeskin before her eyes. She turned to escape to the ground behind her, but a wall of shadow shot up like a barrier of steam before she could escape.

Usagi began to wail in a panic, unable to escape whatever was crawling underneath her. She backed into the last solid corner of cement that lasted and waited for the black rivulets to take it over.

Shadowolf stood tense with concentration distorting her face, but not without a smile. She could barely sense what was happening; she was not as strong with her powers as Windfish was, but if she was correct Sailor Moon would soon face her demise. Her world would give out from under her to a torrent of black energy that'd rip her apart.

What a bloody mess her master would be proud of.

"Oh hell no," a shaky but defiant voice said from behind her in a language she had not been taught to understand.

Shadowolf tried to keep her concentration on her powers, but cocked her head to the side to see the stupid animal behind her from the corner of her eye.

Sailor Kitty stood, her chest heaving from the struggle to breathe against the pain, but stood nonetheless.

"I'm tired of getting knocked out by you guys, I'm not quitting that early this time."

Shadowolf growled, having to stop the attack on Sailor Moon. The street was quiet once again, except for the slight sound of air rushing around the forearms of Shadowolf.

"Alright Kitty, no problem, this time you won't have to wake up," she spat, concentrating everything on the next attack. She was going to make sure the silver soldier wouldn't be able to dodge the next bone-splitting blow.

Although just as she had tensed her muscles again, her head was thrown forward with a loud, hollow crack. Her eyes went wide as she was thrown to her hands and knees in shock, Lien standing behind her with the bat pointed to the ground.

"Alright, Sailor Moon," Lien gave the mark, sidestepping out of the way and an angry cry of "MOON PRINCESS HALATION!" sent a shower of gold and silver into the monster.

Shadowolf howled in pain as soon as the beam bit into her, the light burning at her skin. With one last cry she turned her body to shadow and disappeared into the air, gone in a poof of smoke.

Sailor Kitty's heavy eyed form finally slumped to the ground, like it had been aching to since she had stood up. Lien rushed to her side, as did Sailor Moon, as she sat there hunched over and puffing for air. She didn't really have a plan when she called Shadowolf's attention; she just had to get her off of Sailor Moon. She had been like a deer in the headlights and probably would have been torn in half if it weren't for the two people next to her.

"Well, that was fun," she huffed with a forced smile. She tried to give a chuckle but her heavily bruised body from the two fights in a row wouldn't have it, and she started coughing uncontrollably.

"Renée, I'm so sorry," Usagi fought back tears, hugging her gently around the neck.

"Oh Usagi what do you have to be sorry for? You're the only I've met all night who didn't attack me," she gave a genuine, wider smile this time, but knew better not to laugh.

"I didn't attack you," Lien said as he grabbed her shoulder, as if to help support her own weight. "Surprised you, maybe. Renée we need to get you to a hospital or something," Lien gestured toward her thigh, noting that the blood had begun to drip onto the street. It was a deep gash that Shadowolf had given her, and there were splinters of wood left in the flesh. Sailor Kitty picked at the most notable piece, tugging it out with a soft sucking noise.

"Yeah this is pretty gross isn't it," she sighed, Lien supporting most of her weight now.

"Ok, that's it, we're out of here," Lien stated as he lifted her up off the ground, forcing her to stand but not without help.

"If you can just hang on and wait for my friends, I can call them down and Mamoru could drive her to the hospital really fast-" Sailor Moon rambled as Lien picked her up entirely off the ground and Sailor Kitty degenerated into Renée once again in a soft sliver glow.

"Your friends, as in the other Sailor Soldiers like you?"

"Of course, I can call them on the nearest payphone, I've lost my communicator," Sailor Moon admitted again, as she had when they had first met. However, Lien went pale at the thought.

"They tried to _kill _us, Sailor Moon!"

"Don't worry I can explain to them-"

"They wouldn't even let Renée explain."

"I don't really need a hospital ya know," Renée did her best to lift her head, the blood that had been rushing to it giving her an even worse headache than before. She tried to struggle from Lien's grasp, to walk on her own, but she was too tired to even fight out of his grip.

"Ugh, please just don't take me to the hospital again," she pleaded, her eyelids fluttering from exhaustion.

Lien shook his head and ended the matter. "Don't worry about us, ok Sailor Moon? Things can only get worse if we stay here any longer. I'll take care of her, but then we're going home."

"Where are you going?" Sailor Moon asked cautiously, but Lien walked past her with another shake of his head as a response. They were to have no more to do with each other.

Shadowolf gasped and gagged as she reappeared from a mass of shadow in her lair. Her home. She regained her breath after a long moment, but her Master scared it out of her again.

"Sir," she spat, "I did not see you there," she meant as an apology for her disrespect as she tried to stand upright. She could not help hunching over a bit, and her arms remained plastered around herself, desperately trying to numb the pain of that last attack.

Urufu nodded in understanding, a dark form in the dim light.

"Unsuccessful, I see," was all he said.

Shadowolf was afraid to say anything more. In respect she remained quiet, only her heavy breathing disturbing the peace.

Urufu stood up gently, walking around his injured creation. "At least _you_ made it back."

Shadowolf felt a pang in her stomach, her eyes becoming rounder in surprise and worry over two creatures she never thought she'd worry about.

"What?" she gasped quietly, realizing what he meant. Slipping into denial, she needed him to clarify if it was really true.

"What do you-" Shadowolf spun around to ask, but with a soft squish noise and blinding pain, a gurgle from her throat cut her off. Urufu had cleanly run her through with the sword that had been hanging around his waist that night, and he had unsheathed it behind her without making a sound.

Shadowolf coughed and looked down, not believing what had just happened. Before she knew it he had it back in the sheath, letting her eventually collapse backwards onto the ground.

Urufu left the room without a word, leaving Shadowolf to bleed to death in a horrible haze of pain. She began to shiver, loosing motor control as she continued the hopeless battle for her life. With a grunt, she turned herself over and began to crawl towards the main control. It was merely feet away, but as she dragged herself along with yelps of effort, leaving a streak of blood behind her, it became harder, and harder…

This was it, her life was over, and the only one she had trusted had betrayed her. Shadowolf gripped the control panel and did her best to pull herself up, her muscles straining under the immense task. With a final wail she at last made it and let her top half crumple over the panel, letting herself rest for the last time.

She was not going to leave this world, tossed away like garbage, without taking something down with her.

She slowly clenched the fist in front of her face, her hand shaking violently now as she channelled her energy into this last act. She raised herself as best she could with the other arm with a growl, rearing the fist back that was now sparking with dark energy. Then, before her body gave way she burst through the control panel, sparks flying as her fist easily broke through the metal. Shadow started to flow like a liquid over the system and slip onto the floor, trying to reach every corner of the lab.

"If they can dispose of us," she hissed triumphantly, "then our work must be useless to them," she smiled, as she knew she would succeed in destroying everything. It'd let the enemy stay a step ahead and out of trouble, and sufficiently screw over the people that had betrayed her and her sisters; a wonderful last act of vengeance.

Electricity sparked just before shadow and shards exploded from the central control, blowing through Shadowolf and starting a chain reaction of chaos. One after the other fragile items burst apart and roaring flames followed to engulf everything, leaving nothing but destruction behind.


End file.
